Squash-proof?

So everyone has heard me talk about the 800 lb. gorilla with respect to illumos.

One question I keep getting asked is, can the illumos project be "squashed" by this 800 lb. gorilla?

My stock answer had been "no". But I realized something today; I've been wrong.

The way illumos can be "killed" is if the corporate owner of Solaris were to do something to make illumos irrelevant. Like, say, opening Solaris back up (and in this case, I think they would probably need to go further open than they were before).

I'm not worried though. Even if that happens, illumos will have been a major success. But I really don't think it is going to happen.

Comments

Shmerl said…
Given the current Oracle direction with OpenSolaris, it's not very probable, that they'll suddenly change it back 180 degrees.
September 3, 2010 at 3:01 PM
Anonymous said…
lol good point Garrett :P
September 3, 2010 at 7:00 PM
Paul Johnston said…
I agree it is very unlikely, how unlikely? choose from "pigs might fly", "hell freezes over!" etc. Somehow I cannot see Oracle releasing a free version of Solaris 11. Not commenting on good or bad it's just their business culture.
September 4, 2010 at 11:24 AM
Antonio Vieiro said…
Not really. Even if the gorilla opens Solaris back, who is going to trust them? Not me, of course!

The fact is that there's nothing the gorilla can say nor do that makes illumos irrelevant!
September 6, 2010 at 1:31 AM
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