In June 2005, Sun Microsystems released core elements of its flagship Solaris operating system as open source software, making public more than five million lines of code. The announcement sparked intense interest among developers. But, one year on, are the structures governing the OpenSolaris project fully in place and has the community embraced the offering?
Evidence on the latter front is promising, with Sun's own statistics showing OpenSolaris could already be one of the world's largest open source projects. Since June last year, more than 13,600 people have signed up to be involved in the development of OpenSolaris through the project's Web site, according to Sun's Australia and New Zealand Solaris product manager James Eagleton.
Of that number, Eagleton told ZDNet Australia in a recent telephone interview, just 1,400 were Sun employees.
While interest is high, the governance framework within which the project operates is still in development. Project leaders have signed off on a charter document broadly defining its structure, and a community advisory board of both Sun employees and external interested parties has been appointed. A more detailed constitution is also in the works.
