Editing Oracle Solaris (section)

==History==
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In 1987, [[AT&T Corporation]] and Sun announced that they were collaborating on a project to merge the most popular Unix variants on the market at that time: [[Berkeley Software Distribution]], [[UNIX System V]], and [[Xenix]]. This became Unix [[System V Release 4]] (SVR4).<ref name="Salus">{{cite book
  |title=A Quarter Century of Unix
  |last=Salus
  |first=Peter
  |publisher=Addison-Wesley
  |year=1994
  |isbn=0-201-54777-5
  |pages=199–200
}}</ref>

On September 4, 1991, Sun announced that it would replace its existing BSD-derived Unix, [[SunOS|SunOS 4]], with one based on SVR4. This was identified internally as ''SunOS 5'', but a new marketing name was introduced at the same time: ''Solaris 2''.<ref>{{cite press release
  | title = SunSoft introduces first shrink-wrapped distributed computing solution: Solaris
  | publisher = Sun Microsystems, Inc.
  | date = September 4, 1991
  | url = http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/media/presskits/25years/pr.html#solaris
  | access-date = August 7, 2007
  | archive-date = February 2, 2008
  | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080202213359/http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/media/presskits/25years/pr.html#solaris
  | url-status = live
  }}</ref> The justification for this new overbrand was that it encompassed not only SunOS, but also the [[OpenWindows]] [[graphical user interface]] and [[Open Network Computing]] (ONC) functionality.

Although SunOS 4.1.''x'' micro releases were [[retronym|retroactively named]] ''Solaris 1'' by Sun, the Solaris name is used almost exclusively to refer only to the releases based on SVR4-derived SunOS 5.0 and later.<ref>{{cite web
  | url = http://kb.iu.edu/data/agjq.html
  | title = What are SunOS and Solaris?
  | access-date = November 10, 2014
  | date = May 20, 2013
  | work = Knowledge Base
  | publisher = Indiana University Technology Services
  | archive-date = November 4, 2013
  | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131104000433/https://kb.iu.edu/data/agjq.html
  | url-status = live
  }}</ref>[[File:Solaris 9 logo.svg|thumb|Solaris logo used until Solaris 9]]For releases based on SunOS 5, the SunOS minor version is included in the Solaris release number. For example, Solaris 2.4 incorporates SunOS 5.4. After Solaris 2.6, the ''2.'' was dropped from the release name, so Solaris 7 incorporates SunOS 5.7, and the latest release SunOS 5.11 forms the core of Solaris 11.4.[[File:Solaris OS logo.svg|thumb|Solaris logo introduced with Solaris 10 and used until Oracle's acquisition of Sun]]Although SunSoft stated in its initial Solaris 2 press release their intent to eventually support both SPARC and x86 systems, the first two Solaris 2 releases, 2.0 and 2.1, were SPARC-only. An x86 version of Solaris 2.1 was released in June 1993, about 6 months after the SPARC version, as a [[Desktop computer|desktop]] and uniprocessor workgroup server operating system. It included the [[Wabi (software)|Wabi]] emulator to support Windows applications.<ref>{{cite news |first1=Noel-Marie |last1=Taylor |first2=Mark |last2=Wallace |title=Solaris 2.1: The Rise of a New Sun? |newspaper=PC Magazine |date=June 15, 1993 |pages=243–244 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jMKfH6i9OcYC&pg=PA244}}</ref> At the time, Sun also offered the [[Interactive Unix]] system that it had acquired from [[Interactive Systems Corporation]].<ref>{{cite news |first=Steven J. |last=Vaughan-Nichols |title=Interactive Unix |newspaper=PC Magazine |date=June 15, 1993 |page=240 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jMKfH6i9OcYC&pg=PA240}}</ref> In 1994, Sun released Solaris 2.4, supporting both SPARC and x86 systems from a unified source code base.

In 2011, the Solaris 11 kernel [[source code]] [[Source code leak|leaked]].<ref>[https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTAzMDE Oracle Solaris 11 Kernel Source-Code Leaked] on [[Phoronix]] by [[Michael Larabel]] (on 19 December 2011)</ref><ref>[https://arstechnica.com/business/2011/12/disgruntled-employee-oracle-doesnt-seem-to-care-about-solaris-11-code-leak/ Disgruntled employee? Oracle doesn’t seem to care about Solaris 11 code leak] on [[Ars Technica]] by Sean Gallagher (Dec 21, 2011)</ref>

On September 2, 2017, [[Simon Phipps (programmer)|Simon Phipps]], a former Sun Microsystems employee not hired by Oracle in the acquisition, reported on [[Twitter]] that Oracle had laid off the Solaris core development staff, which many interpreted as sign that Oracle no longer intended to support future development of the platform.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.itwire.com/opinion-and-analysis-sp-481/open-sauce/79738-bye,-bye-solaris,-it-was-a-nice-ride-while-it-lasted.html|title=Bye, bye Solaris, it was a nice ride while it lasted|last=Varghese|first=Sam|website=ITWire|language=en-gb|access-date=2017-09-04}}</ref> While Oracle did have a large layoff of Solaris development engineering staff, development continued and Solaris 11.4 was released in 2018.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://blogs.oracle.com/solaris/continuous-delivery,-really|title=Continuous Delivery, Really?|last=Lynn|first=Scott|access-date=2018-01-23|archive-date=January 23, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200123163819/https://blogs.oracle.com/solaris/continuous-delivery,-really|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://blogs.oracle.com/solaris/2017-in-review-and-looking-ahead-to-2018|title=2017 in Review and Looking ahead to 2018|last=Lynn|first=Scott|access-date=2018-01-23|archive-date=January 23, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200123170913/https://blogs.oracle.com/solaris/2017-in-review-and-looking-ahead-to-2018|url-status=live}}</ref>