Solaris 10 is a computer operating system developed by Sun Micro Systems and is certified as a version of UNIX. Although historically Solaris 10 was a closed source program, it has since been open sourced by Sun. It is now one of the single largest open source projects in the community, and continues to grow in features, members and applications.

In the early 1990″s, Sun replaced their BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution) derived Sun Operating System 4 with a version of UNIX System V Release 4. This was jointly developed with AT & T. The underlying release name was Sun OS 5.0, but a new marketing name was introduced at the same time: Solaris 2. While Sun OS 4 micro releases were retroactively named Solaris 1 by Sun. The name Solaris is almost exclusively used to refer to SVR4-derived Sun OS 5.0 and later.

Solaris is considered to be the Sun OS operating system plus a graphical user environment ONC + along with other components. The Sun OS minor version is included in the Solaris release name. After Solaris 2.6, Sun dropped the 2 from the name, so Solaris 7 incorporated Sun OS 5.7 and the latest release Sun OS 5.10 which forms the core of Solaris 10.

Sun Micro Systems has dubbed Solaris 10 as the most powerful operating system on the planet. They say that it boasts over 600 features that make it the most efficient, secure, and reliable operating system ever built. Here are some of the features they boast:

* Security – Solaris 10 includes some of the world’s most advanced security features, such as Process and User Rights Management, Trusted Extensions for Mandatory Access Control, the Cryptographic Framework and Secure By Default Networking that allow you to safely deliver new solutions, consolidate with security and protect mission-critical data.
* Observability – The Solaris 10 release gives you observability into your system with tools such as Solaris Dynamic Tracing (DTrace), which enables real-time application debugging and optimization.
* Performance – Solaris 10 delivers indisputable performance advantages for database, Web, and Java technology-based services, as well as massive scalability, shattering world records by delivering unbeatable price/performance advantages.
* Platform Choice – Solaris 10 is fully supported on more than 800 SPARC-based and x64/x86-based systems from top manufacturers, including systems from Sun, Dell, HP, and IBM.
* Networking – With its optimized network stack and support for today’s advanced network computing protocols, Solaris 10 delivers high-performance networking to most applications without modification.
* Data Management – Solaris 10 offers dramatic advances in file system and volume management by delivering virtually unlimited capacity and near-zero administration.

And these are only a few of the advantages Sun claims from Solaris 10. This could be the wave of the operating system future.

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