Can Linux and Solaris be married?

Blame its developer relations, or Linux momentum, or the desire by large companies either not to divide their attention or not to support a competitor.

It would be a tragedy for Linux if OpenSolaris failed. But in the current economic environment a lot of unthinkable things become possible.

So can they be combined?

At Nexenta, they are.

Nexenta (its symbol is a giraffe) combines the OpenSolaris kernel with Userland, the open source filesystem. (Not to be confused with UserLand Software.)

The result is what FossBoss Ahmed Kamal calls SolaBuntu, a good combination of power and usability. It's best on a server, but Linux-heads will not require retraining to start using it.

Nexenta has supporters in many corners of the world, and its rise illustrates a key advantage of open source, adaptability. As a company Sun may or may not survive, but by making Solaris open source the company has assured a great legacy.