COMMUNITY Projects

An up-to-date look at free software and its makers PROJECTS ON THE MOVE

The first community-driven version of OpenSolaris burst onto the distribution scene. In other news, is now available on a modular system the vendors describe as an open hardware

platform. BY CARSTEN SCHNOBER

ebian founder Ian Murdock [1] now works for software giant ing system that works out of the box, DSun Microsystems as the chief bundled with meaningful components operating system strategist, so it is no such as a desktop environment and de- coincidence that the first genuine Open- velopment tools. Solaris [2] distribution is named after package, although it is a must-have for Of course, no operating system should Murdock’s home state: Indiana. any operating system today. Further- be without a package management sys- Sun released a free version of its oper- more, adding network support was not tem that prevents overtaxing the users’ ating system early in 2005 under the a trivial undertaking. patience with dependency resolution name of OpenSolaris, code named “Ne- Nevada was not of much use either as tasks. Also, OpenSolaris development vada.” Before trying out out the free ver- an advertisement for Solaris or as a free is no longer restricted to the Sun labs sion, users had to negotiate a number of operating system. Sun seemed to have in the Indiana era but is instead commu- obstacles designed to boost the customer reached the same conclusion, which is nity driven. base of the proprietary Solaris version. probably why they hired Ian Murdock in Sun has released the first download- Nevada simply provided the kernel March 2007. A few months later, Mur- able version of Indiana, and it already source code and a couple of other com- dock announced that work had started fulfills one of the declared goals; a rou- ponents. Building the code required a on the new version of OpenSolaris. tine look at the desktop reveals no differ- working Solaris system that you either The new OpenSolaris version looks ences from any normal Linux distribu- already had or didn’t get until you had to offer the same benefits as a tion. The 600MB+ image file is registered on the download page. Net- : a burned onto a CD in the normal work support wasn’t part of the basic ready-to-run operat- way and slotted into the drive.

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The Slim Installer then boots an X server stage of development. with the Gnome desktop environment as If you are interested in a Live system. checking out free Unix- Of course, the Gnome environment style operating systems on OpenSolaris is no different from a other than Linux, you Gnome environment built for Linux, and now have an easy option it is a good place to start exploring the for doing so. system. The performance hits that affect any Live system are not the operating Buggy Hardware? system’s fault. Clicking Install Open- Traditional software com- Solaris launches into the installation rou- panies love to denounce tine as you would expect, and there are free software as being no differences between this and the in- unreliable and prone to staller with any other Linux distribution. error, even though the A wizard guides the user through the in- facts often prove other- Figure 3: Bug Labs provides a free software development kit. dividual installation steps and helps wise. Bug Labs [3], with basic tasks, such as partitioning the which positions itself as an open source CPU, 128MB RAM, and various inter- hard disk and creating a user (Figure 1). company, decided to take the offensive faces. Also, BUGbase can connect to Just because Indiana has now reached against prejudice by including the word wireless and wired networks and offers a stage at which it will install without Bug in its name. serial and USB interfaces for device con- any hitches does not automatically mean The company is trying to send a mes- nections. The Linux operating system is that you can rely on the distribution for sage with this name: Bug Labs wants free, of course. daily business. The installer still does to be a bug in the consumer electronics Four extension modules are available not support updates of existing installa- system, to cause trouble just like a pro- for BUGbase; all of them plug into the tions; instead, it completely overwrites gramming error, and to be as adaptable basic device’s connectors. A GPS module the existing partition. When using the as an insect. In fact, the company is helps users navigate. A movement sen- partitioning tool, be careful: If the auto- looking to promote change and be living sor, including a speedometer or a digital mated routine fails to find a suitable proof that things actually can change. camera, lets you keep an eye on your partition for the installation on your Despite this high-flying self-marketing, surroundings. An LCD touch screen sup- disk, it simply overwrites the whole Bug Labs products are worth a second ports input and output. Bug Labs has disk. Incidentally, the Slim Installer only look. The idea behind Bug Labs might announced a bigger LCD screen, a key- runs on x86 CPUs thus far. not be new, but there are few existing board, and an audio device for next year. All told, it certainly looks as though examples of practical implementations. Bug Labs hopes to entice developers to Sun has created a winner. Ian Murdock Bug Labs removes the open source prin- use the company’s hardware by offering has proven that he understands how to ciple from the software world and trans- a free development kit (Figure 3). If the leverage the benefits of free software – fers it to hardware. Instead of offering a hardware really is easy to program speaks for itself. Traces of Mur- ready-made hardware product, Bug Labs thanks to open interfaces, the Bug Labs dock’s instincts are starting to show in offers a modular system – based on a Kit could develop into a fascinating proj- Indiana. User friendliness is important, small hardware unit dubbed BUGbase ect. Despite this, “open hardware” might but should not compromise technologi- (Figure 2) – from which buyers can cre- be an exaggerated claim for now. It is cal advances, which is surprisingly evi- ate any kind of hardware. BUGbase, unclear from the website how the hard- dent in Indiana considering the early which the vendor calls a “fully program- ware offerings differ from those of any mable and hackable Linux other vendor with respect to openness. computer,” includes an ARM For example, we could not find down- loadable circuit diagrams, and the site does not answer questions about the consequences of copying the products. Maybe things really will change in the near future, but when this issue went to press, the Bug Labs website also didn’t even have pricing information for BUG- base and its modules. I INFO

[1] Ian Murdock:http:// ianmurdock. com Figure 2: BUGbase is the basis [2] OpenSolaris: Figure 1: A wizard simplifies the installation of OpenSo- of a modular system that allows http:// www. . org laris, even though the Slim Installer still lacks a couple users to design their own hard- [3] Bug Labs: http:// www. buglabs. net of critical functions. ware.

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