a. Existing customers already got their hands chopped, their prices raised, or their lawyers poked. They're stuck with an abusive, litigious, opaque vendor and will migrate out when they can. Many are stuck.
b. Prospective customers must have some compatibility need or they'd look elsewhere.
Illumos/OpenSolaris etc are great and install about as easily as FreeBSD, on desktop and server systems with Ethernet. Other stuff like WiFi etc is not as well supported.
It’s still my favorite OS, if it fits what I need it for.
The Oracle business model is to rope you into a contract, set you up for failure, ignore you until you violate a license agreement, then sue you and rope you into another contract to avoid the lawsuit. If you're an Oracle customer, prepare to get sued... for something... anything really.
SmartOS, for example, is a more specialized application of the scions of OpenSolaris.
Here is a list of other distros that originated from the Illumos efforts after OpenSolaris was terminated:
-DilOS, with Debian package manager (dpkg + apt) and virtualization support, available for x86-64 and SPARC.
-NexentaStor, distribution optimized for virtualization, storage area networks, network-attached storage, and iSCSI or Fibre Channel applications employing the ZFS file system.
-OmniOS Community Edition, takes a minimalist approach suitable for server use.
-OpenIndiana, a distribution that is a continuation and fork in the spirit of the OpenSolaris operating system.
-SmartOS, a distribution for cloud computing with Kernel-based Virtual Machine integration.
-Helios, a distribution powering the Oxide Computer Rack.
-Tribblix, retro style distribution with modern components, available for x86-64 and SPARC.
-v9os, a server-only, IPS-based minimal SPARC distribution.
-XStreamOS, a distribution for infrastructure, cloud, and web development.
A few places, Fujitsu also has Solaris servers, and if you care about security, Solaris SPARC is the only production UNIX with hardware memory tagging in active use since 2015.
it's mostly OmniOS/SmartOS and other Illumos (descendant of OpenSolaris) distributions. All the Solaris 11 deployments i was aware of in mid-late 2010s are now either migrated to some sort of container setup of running on OmniOS.
Either way, SPARC and the entire family seem to be entirely dead in the grand scheme of things. I don't know why anyone would develop for this platform.
I suppose they are looking for people who had not previously stuck their hand in the lawnmower.
Who's the target audience for that announcement?
a. Existing customers already got their hands chopped, their prices raised, or their lawyers poked. They're stuck with an abusive, litigious, opaque vendor and will migrate out when they can. Many are stuck.
b. Prospective customers must have some compatibility need or they'd look elsewhere.
c. Developers won't be fooled so rule them out :)
I was looking up the Sparc S8 mentioned in the article and the first discussion that came up is quickly derailed due to worrying about copyright: https://patchwork.ozlabs.org/project/sparclinux/patch/202511...
Shades of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHW58D-_O64
"You need to think of Larry Ellison the way you think of a lawnmower."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zRN7XLCRhc&t=2308s
Start at 33:02 for full rant.
I think I'd rather use hpux than deal with oracle
Hpux died on December 31, 2025
Mature Software Product Support without Sustaining Engineering through at least 31-Dec-2028
Apparently, it's out of support the same way RHEL 6 is out of support.
Illumos/OpenSolaris etc are great and install about as easily as FreeBSD, on desktop and server systems with Ethernet. Other stuff like WiFi etc is not as well supported.
It’s still my favorite OS, if it fits what I need it for.
What are your needs that it would fit? Oracle have you by the database?
It’s great for ZFS and for Zones, including Linux zones.
"We're about to take a bath on these datacenters, do we have any other viable lines of business left?"
The Oracle business model is to rope you into a contract, set you up for failure, ignore you until you violate a license agreement, then sue you and rope you into another contract to avoid the lawsuit. If you're an Oracle customer, prepare to get sued... for something... anything really.
I wonder where Solaris is still actively being deployed and used.
I think that OpenIndiana is where those with general interest in Solaris on x86_64 should go.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenIndiana
SmartOS, for example, is a more specialized application of the scions of OpenSolaris.
Here is a list of other distros that originated from the Illumos efforts after OpenSolaris was terminated:
-DilOS, with Debian package manager (dpkg + apt) and virtualization support, available for x86-64 and SPARC.
-NexentaStor, distribution optimized for virtualization, storage area networks, network-attached storage, and iSCSI or Fibre Channel applications employing the ZFS file system.
-OmniOS Community Edition, takes a minimalist approach suitable for server use.
-OpenIndiana, a distribution that is a continuation and fork in the spirit of the OpenSolaris operating system.
-SmartOS, a distribution for cloud computing with Kernel-based Virtual Machine integration.
-Helios, a distribution powering the Oxide Computer Rack.
-Tribblix, retro style distribution with modern components, available for x86-64 and SPARC.
-v9os, a server-only, IPS-based minimal SPARC distribution.
-XStreamOS, a distribution for infrastructure, cloud, and web development.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illumos#Distributions
Edit: From this blog entry, this is suspicious: "the committed support for Oracle Solaris until at least 2037" - does Solaris have a 2038 problem?
No 2037 problem. That's just 25 years after they killed the product.
A few places, Fujitsu also has Solaris servers, and if you care about security, Solaris SPARC is the only production UNIX with hardware memory tagging in active use since 2015.
AmpereOne M with MTE is out nowadays
Good to know, still I bet there are more Solaris SPARC deployments on the wild than GNU/Linux on AmpereOne M.
it's mostly OmniOS/SmartOS and other Illumos (descendant of OpenSolaris) distributions. All the Solaris 11 deployments i was aware of in mid-late 2010s are now either migrated to some sort of container setup of running on OmniOS.
My employer uses ZFS under AndrewFS (aka AFS) and I would bet dollars to donuts that the OS is Solaris.
I think Oxide Computer uses it.
Solaris proper, not Illumos?
Either way, SPARC and the entire family seem to be entirely dead in the grand scheme of things. I don't know why anyone would develop for this platform.
Solaris and Illumos are available on x86
But illumos doesn't run on sparc... granted I don't have the hardware, but if I did, it would be nice if I could use illumos.
Nope.
Oracle SPARC S7, T8, and Fujitsu SPARC M12 still supported
supported sure but its an ancient dying platform. sparc was discontinued almost 10 years ago.