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Sun's 'Project Copy Linux' hits milestone

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Sun Microsystems is claiming its first major milestone in Project Indiana, with the release of an OpenSolaris developer preview binary distribution.

The OpenSolaris Developer Preview features the core operating system, Gnome desktop and graphical installer contained on a Slim Install Live CD for x86. The SPARC edition is still in the pipeline.

Other features include the Image Packaging System (IPS) package manager, due in the next release of Solaris, to download additional packages over the internet. And the Zettabyte File System (ZFS) for rollback in case things go wrong.

Sun said the preview will allow developers to test the distribution, which is due in the first half of 2008 and which the company will target aggressively at students, developers and start-ups, it says. Apparently, Sun hasn't heard of something called Linux.

"By making a binary distribution of OpenSolaris, the community is giving developers what they want and expect from OpenSolaris," Sun said.®

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