NEWS: OpenSolaris Developer Preview 2 Available

Project Indiana is a great project, which aims to put the OpenSolaris platform line by line with the Linux one which dominates the open source desktop. The aim is to create a binary distribution based on OpenSolaris source code, and the end product should be an attractive installable Live CD. First things first, here is the release announcement:

I'm pleased to announce that OpenSolaris Developer Preview 2 is now available for your download pleasure. This is an x86-based live CD install image, containing some new and emerging OpenSolaris technologies and should be considered a developer preview only. Among the spiffy features contained in this release are: based on Nevada build 79b; pkg(1) improvements, including progress reporting, verification support and incremental catalog update; ksh93 is the default system shell (bash remains the default user shell); introduction of /usr/has/bin (experimental); addition of several new packages, including OpenOffice.org 2.3.1; JRE included by default.

The following drivers are included:

NVIDIA Graphics System Software (nvidia)
ADMtek Ethernet Driver (afe)
AMD8111 Fast Ethernet Driver (amd8111s)
Davicom 9102 Fast Ethernet Driver (dmfe)
Macronix Fast Ethernet Driver (mxfe)
Nvidia ck804 pro / mcp55 pro combo SATA driver (nvsata)
Sun NIU leaf driver (nxge)
Ralink RT2500 802.11b/g Wireless Driver (ralink)
realtek 8180L 802.11b driver (rtw)
USB Keyspan serial driver (usbsksp)

This release is a big thing, and these days I'm hoping to install it and test it. For anyone else interested in doing the same thing, here is the download link. For more details see the official release annoucement in which the OpenSolaris team says that users to provide feedback and bugs on the hardware recognition and issues. So if you want to contribute, here is how to report bugs.