Illumos
illumos is an open-source, Unix-like operating system that serves as the successor to OpenSolaris, originally developed by Sun Microsystems. When Oracle discontinued OpenSolaris in 2010, the illumos project emerged to maintain and develop the OpenSolaris codebase independently.
Key Features of illumos:
ZFS File System:
- A powerful and robust file system known for its data integrity, snapshots, compression, and scalability.
DTrace:
- A dynamic tracing framework for diagnosing and troubleshooting system performance and behavior in real time.
Zones:
- Lightweight OS-level virtualization technology for isolating applications and workloads.
Crossbow:
- A network virtualization framework enabling high-performance virtualized networking.
Hardware Virtualization:
- Supports hypervisors like bhyve and KVM for running virtual machines.
Self-Hosting:
- illumos can build and host itself, making it fully self-sufficient for developers and users.
Applications of illumos:
Enterprise Environments: Often used in servers and storage systems due to its reliability and advanced features.
Storage Systems: Thanks to ZFS, illumos is a popular choice for systems requiring robust storage capabilities.
Virtualization Platforms: Zones and support for other virtualization technologies make it suitable for deploying multiple virtualized workloads.
Distributions Based on illumos:
OmniOS: Focused on enterprise server environments.
SmartOS: Tailored for cloud and container environments, developed by Joyent.
OpenIndiana: A general-purpose operating system for desktops and servers.
illumos Community:
The illumos project is supported by a vibrant community of developers and contributors. The project maintains a focus on transparency and collaboration, with all development conducted openly.
In essence, illumos is a modern continuation of OpenSolaris, offering a powerful, feature-rich, and open-source alternative for enterprise and server use cases.