The illumos Family

There are several widely different OS distributions based on common illumos kernel. Some of them are maintained by enthusiasts, others are primarily developed by commercial companies with their own priorities and target products (i.e. storage, virtualization, etc.) with different packaging systems (IPS, SVR4, DEB, RPM, etc). These projects contribute back to the common core set of software which the illumos project is about.

Distributions and projects built on the illumos kernel include (in alphabetical order):

• Belenix – an old time distro, on which development has resumed again. Uses RPM. (www.belenix.org is down/dead as at Feb-4-2013)
• DilOS from igork is an open-source illumos distro with dpkg/apt. Can be using on VM and bare metal with text console and SSH logins as development environment with DPKG & IPKG zones. Also it has illumos-kvm and illumos-kvm-cmd for KVM virtualization.
• EON Storage – an old time distro based on OpenSolaris SXCE, EON Storage since version 1.0 is now based on illumos/OI. It is an OS designed to make the best use of your Home/SOHO NAS server, enhancing it with ZFS, web-serving, media streaming, VM hosting, etc. Additional packages are available. A specific feature of this distribution is use of boot media separate from the storage pool for your data, so updates or repairs might be as simple as changing your USB/CF flash boot device (256 Mb or higher); customizations for your local deployment are quite possible. See also:
  * http://eonstorage.blogspot.cz/2013/01/eon-zfs-appliance-updates-fixes.html
  * http://sites.google.com/site/eonstorage/updating-eon
• illumian – general purpose server OS using Debian packaging rather than IPS (similar to OpenIndiana but without GUI components or other desktop packages), the open-source underpinnings of the commercial NexentaStor product. Currently no KVM virtualization support (feature to be possibly added later).
• napp-it is a project of a ZFS storage server appliance based on illumian, OmniOS, OpenIndiana and Solaris 11 with a single-command online installer and a WEB-UI.
• napp-it to GO is a preconfigured ready to use USB distribution based on napp-it for common used hardware like a HP Microserver or SuperMicro mainboards. Download, Clone (16 GB USB Sticks, tool included) and Run. USB ZFS mirror suggested.
  included and preinstalled: OmniOS with LZ4 support, napp-it Web-UI, Comstar, netatalk3, Xampp, Mediatomb DLNA mediaserver, Smartmontools6, performance tools etc.
• NexentaStor
• OmniOS – from OmniTI takes a minimalist approach to create a full Illumos-derived operating system. It includes all of the benefits of Illumos, such as zone and KVM virtualization, and is suitable for server use.
• OpenIndiana is a successor to and derived from the original Sun OpenSolaris reference distribution, and is suitable for use on Servers and Desktops.

• OpenSXCE is a project on which Martin Bochnig (previously creator of MartUX distribution based on OpenSolaris SXCE) slaved away for many months, investing all his time and scarce monies. It is ultimately an up-to-date distribution in sync for SPARC and x86, and on SPARC it supports all sun4u and sun4v Workstations, Servers, Telcos from the 1995' Ultra-1 to everything that came to market before 2011. All gfx cards have binary redistributable driver support.
  The SPARC version is being published in late January 2013, with Caiman text-install and gui-install, on CD.iso, DVD.iso and USB.
  The x86 version should ship in February.
  There is a nice page about MartUX and OpenSXCE in the OI Wiki: MartUX_OpenIndiana oi_151a SPARC LiveDVD

• SmartOS from Joyent is an open-source illumos distro designed for cloud computing. It includes a port of KVM, allowing other OSes such as Linux and Windows to run natively in SmartOS/illumos virtualized environments.
• StormOS – originally intended to be based on the illumos kernel with Debian userland, now repurposed as an extension of illumian that adds a GUI and other desktop packages to create a dpkg based desktop OS (now under http://osdyson.org).
• Tribblix from Peter Tribble uses SVR4 packaging with the Xfce and E17 desktops, providing a retro feel with modern components
• XStreamOS is a distribution of the illumos kernel developed and maintained by Sonicle, featuring a customized text install, the ZFS fileystem, Crossbow network architecture, virtualization, zones, and a starting point to contribute and develop the illumos kernel.
  
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Distro Comparison Table