Illumosbased

Illumosbased refers to software, distributions, or systems that are built on illumos, the open-source continuation of the Solaris operating system. These systems share a kernel and core userland derived from the Solaris lineage and typically incorporate Solaris-inspired features such as the ZFS filesystem, DTrace dynamic tracing, and the Service Management Facility (SMF).

Illumos originated in the early 2010s after Oracle discontinued OpenSolaris; community forks gave rise to several distributions that identify as illumos-based, including OmniOS, OpenIndiana, and SmartOS. The term signals a common heritage with the Solaris family, while allowing for varying goals and developments among individual projects.

Examples of illumosbased projects include OmniOS, which emphasizes stability for server deployments; OpenIndiana, a general-purpose desktop and server distribution; and SmartOS, designed for virtualization and cloud workloads. These systems tend to prioritize features like ZFS, DTrace, and SMF, though specific support and licensing can differ between distributions.

Packaging and ecosystem: Illumos-based systems commonly use the Image Packaging System (IPS) for software installation and updates, accessed via the pkg command. They often rely on ZFS as the default or recommended filesystem and maintain Solaris-derived core components, with variations in feature support and community activity across projects.

Usage and positioning: Illumosbased operating systems offer alternatives to Linux and BSD for users who require Solaris features, robust ZFS capabilities, and a UNIX-like environment with strong system instrumentation. They are frequently deployed on servers, storage appliances, and virtualization hosts, with desktop support and community engagement varying by distribution.