Could Novell kill OpenSolaris?

Sun's just opened its developer conference with the long-delayed launch of OpenSolaris, the open source version of its Solaris operating system. But after all this time, will it live?

It's taken Sun since 2005 to turn OpenSolaris into a proper release, which Sun intends will stand alongside Solaris as a community operating system - like Fedora is to Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

But some say the OS is doomed. "OpenSolaris Arrives Just to Die", says Practical Technology, pointing out that Linux has come on in leaps and bands over the last three years, and is now happily filling an expanding role for general purpose open source operating systems.



More scarily, as a Unix-based operating system, Solaris could be vulnerable to IP lawsuits, warns the site. Sun launched OpenSolaris with the blessing of SCO (then apparently owner of Unix) on the basis that its original deal with former owner AT&T gave it the right to open source a Unix-based Solaris.

Now, with SCO down, Novell is definitely the owner of the Unix intellectual property - and, as a Linux vendor, it might not want competition from OpenSolaris.

Practical Technology has sifted Groklaw's transcript of the Novell v Sco trial (now all finished bar the verdict), and come up with the following:

"Fundamentally, it simply would have been contrary to Novell’s business interests to enable something like [OpenSolaris],” Greg Jones, Novell’s VP of Technology Law said in court, after earlier stating, “it simply would not have been in Novell’s commercial interests."

In 2002, Novell was already planning to go into Linux, and would not have done anything to help out a competitor, he said. "Sun and OpenSolaris’ real trouble is that after Novell finishes grinding SCO into the ground, they’ll be next on Novell’s list," warns Practical Technology.

But OS News says Novell would never commit such a public relations blunder. Suing Linux vendors got SCO nothing but trouble. It could do the same to Novell - and alienate its substantial Linux user base by showing hostility to another open source product.

All this leaves aside the question whether OpenSolaris is actually a threat to Linux operating systems. A first look from ZDNet US' Jason Perlow rates it highly as a competitor to Unbuntu on the desktop, so it could at the very least be an alternative - but it's not supported commercially.

Users comparing the two will have to factor in the costs of an upgrade to a supported version of either, and make a judgement of the likely future plans of Sun and whichever Linux vendor they go with.

Our blogger at JavaOne, Adrian Bridgewater, picked up some distrust of "company-controlled open-source projects", so maybe Novell should keep its powder dry.