index.html

   1 <!DOCTYPE html>
   2 <html lang="en">
   3 <head>
   4 <meta charset="utf-8">
   5 <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
   6 <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">
   7 <link rel="stylesheet" media="all" href="main.css">
   8 <title>The Unleashed Operating System</title>
   9 </head>
  10 <body>
  11 <p class="title">
  12 The&nbsp;Unleashed Operating&nbsp;System
  13 </p>
  14 <h1>Overview</h1>
  15 <p>
  16 Unleashed is an operating system based on
  17 <a href="https://illumos.org/">illumos</a>, which itself is a derivative of
  18 OpenSolaris, which has its roots in UNIX&reg; System V Release 4 (SVR4).
  19 </p>
  20 <p>
  21 It is intended as an operating system for developers by developers, in a true
  22 UNIX&reg;-like fashion:
  23 Unleashed ships with a compiler and can build its own tree.
  24 Being based on illumos, dtrace for debugging also ships with the system.
  25 </p>
  26 <h1>Goals</h1>
  27 <p>
  28 We try to make Unleashed an operating system that <em>we would like to use</em>.
  29 To this end, larger changes have been made, such as:
  30 </p>
  31 <ul>
  32   <li>nroff (and troff), replaced with
  33   <a href="https://mdocml.bsd.lv/">mandoc</a>;</li>
  34   <li>moving the man pages from section 1M to section 8;</li>
  35   <li>curses, replaced with ncurses;</li>
  36 </ul>
  37 <p>
  38 However, we try to preserve the feeling of illumos, so that SMF will certainly
  39 be kept.
  40 You will also not have to worry about
  41 <a href="https://www.illumos.org/issues/280">the userland becoming unaware
  42 of ZFS</a> as a policy decision.
  43 If userland utilities are replaced, they are most commonly taken from the
  44 <a href="https://www.openbsd.org/">OpenBSD project</a>.
  45 We are grateful to the OpenBSD project and draw much inspiration and code from
  46 them.
  47 </p>
  48 <p>
  49 Some of our plans are:
  50 </p>
  51 <ul>
  52   <li>turning the base system into only one package (really, when does removing
  53   or individually updating <code>drivers/usb</code> make sense?);</li>
  54   <li>replacing pkg(8);</li>
  55   <li>removing SVR4 streams;</li>
  56   <li>improving man page readability and discoverability;</li>
  57   <li>removing utilities that provide redundant functionality;</li>
  58   <li>replacing ipfw with OpenBSD pf.</li>
  59 </ul>
  60 <p>
  61 Please note that <strong>Unleashed is currently not ready for use in a
  62 production environment</strong> and most likely never will be an
  63 &ldquo;enterprise&rdquo; operating system.
  64 While we do try to keep up with patches for security vulnerability as fixed in
  65 upstream projects &ndash; or as reported to us &ndash;, we have no resources for
  66 auditing the system.
  67 </p>
  68 <h1>Download/Installation</h1>
  69 <p>
  70 This is where we would put a release.
  71 If we had one.
  72 </p>
  73 <p>
  74 <strong>Note</strong>:
  75 A release is a snapshot only meant to be used to update to a current tree;
  76 there will be no backports of new fixes onto a release.
  77 </p>
  78 <p>
  79 Booting the installer takes a while because the root
  80 filesystem image to be installed is part of the boot archive.
  81 Expect a few minutes.
  82 The installed system will not have such outrageous boot times.
  83 <span class="small">If this annoys you enough that you want to do something about
  84 it, you're already a potential contributor.</span>
  85 </p>
  86 <h1>Comparison with Other Operating Systems</h1>
  87 <h2>illumos</h2>
  88 <p>
  89 Comparing ourselves to <a href="https://illumos.org/">illumos</a> is already a
  90 bit of a stretch since illumos does not actually ship an installable operating
  91 system.
  92 Unlike illumos, we aggressively break backwards compatibility for the sake of
  93 improving the system.
  94 Contributing to Unleashed is multiple orders of magnitude less difficult, less
  95 formal and thus ultimately less time consuming.
  96 We do away with the theater of community consensus and instead subscribe to a
  97 BDFL model.
  98 </p>
  99 <h2>Linux Distributions</h2>
 100 <p>
 101 Linux distributions come in many shapes and forms, ranging from enterprise
 102 distributions such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
 103 to desktop systems such as Ubuntu.
 104 We would compare Unleashed to experimental hobbyist distributions like
 105 <a href="https://exherbo.org/">Exherbo</a>.
 106 However, unlike them, we are still rather young:
 107 there are many low-hanging fruit that contributors can take on.
 108 </p>
 109 <h2>BSD Flavors</h2>
 110 <p>
 111 <strong><a href="https://www.freebsd.org/">FreeBSD</a></strong> is kind of the
 112 kitchen sink of BSDs,
 113 used to build appliances, firewall systems like
 114 <a href="https://www.pfsense.org/">pfSense</a> or even enterprise operating
 115 systems like <a href="https://xinuos.com/">Xinuos OpenServer 10</a>.
 116 Unlike FreeBSD, we aim to create an operating system that is not general
 117 purpose.
 118 We have no intention of trying to please everyone.
 119 </p>
 120 <p>
 121 <strong><a href="https://www.openbsd.org/">OpenBSD</a></strong> is basically
 122 where we want to be,
 123 just with an illumos rather than a BSD heritage.
 124 We also try to be a bit less intimidating to start contributing to.
 125 </p>
 126 <p>
 127 <strong><a href="https://www.netbsd.org/">NetBSD</a></strong> focusses on
 128 portability and compatibility.
 129 However, Unleashed supports one and only one architecture: amd64.
 130 We also often break compatibility with Solaris &ndash; which we believe is a
 131 feature, rather than an issue.
 132 </p>
 133 <h1>Contributing</h1>
 134 <p>
 135 Contributing to Unleashed is fairly straightforward:
 136 First, install Unleashed because it is self-hosting.
 137 Then join our IRC channel
 138 <a href="ircs://irc.freenode.net:6697/unleashed">#unleashed on Freenode</a>.
 139 If you have a project in mind, you may want to ask whether we are interested in
 140 it before you start.
 141 If you're interested in getting some suggestions, just ask if there's anything
 142 that needs doing.
 143 </p>
 144 <p>
 145 Now clone the tree (<code>git clone git://repo.or.cz/unleashed.git</code>),
 146 make your changes,
 147 build (see <code>doc/how-to-build.md</code>),
 148 then holler on the IRC channel.
 149 The changes will be reviewed and if deemed okay, merged.
 150 It really is this easy.
 151 We don't bite.
 152 </p>
 153 <h1>Documentation</h1>
 154 <p>
 155 No documentation beyond the man pages exists.
 156 No documentation beyond the man pages should exist:
 157 We wish to eventually polish the man pages to a point where publishing them
 158 as a PDF bundle is considered sufficient documentation.
 159 The system should contain all necessary information to use and troubleshoot it.
 160 Work on the man pages is welcome.
 161 </p>
 162 <p class="small">
 163 UNIX&reg; is a registered trademark of The Open Group.
 164 </p>
 165 </body>
 166 </html>
 167