[yjftsjthsd-h]

> there's enough licensed code that open sourcing it as is would probably be a non starter.

This is exactly what Sun wrote the CDDL for; it let them open source as many components as possible while still leaving some pieces closed. Sun also ended up releasing a bundle of binaries that you drop into a source build to get a complete /functional OpenSolaris system with the still-needed closed bits included, and over time some of those components got replaced piecemeal with FOSS alternatives (although illumos still includes some closed parts AFAIK).

[netdoll]

That's right, I definitely had the ordeal of freeing Solaris in mind when I was writing the comment. Honestly something of a minor miracle it even happened. (also I'm pretty sure all the closed stuff got purged out of illumos?, not even using Sun compilers now, it's all gcc/binutils)

[yjftsjthsd-h]

> That's right, I definitely had the ordeal of freeing Solaris in mind when I was writing the comment. Honestly something of a minor miracle it even happened.

Good to keep the successes in mind:)

> also I'm pretty sure all the closed stuff got purged out of illumos?, not even using Sun compilers now, it's all gcc/binutils

https://illumos.org/docs/developers/build/#getting-the-close... seems to say there's still some blobs in there, and gcc is a patched version. That said, yes, AIUI it's gotten better.