The OpenSolaris Board May Kill Itself Next Month

Oracle failed to deliver OpenSolaris 2010.1H and it's now been thirteen months since the last official update (when Sun Microsystems still was under its own control) of the OpenSolaris operating system. The next OpenSolaris update was supposed to come in February or March and then it kept getting pushed back with little to no communication from Oracle. OpenSolaris has been M.I.A. and many have been wondering what the heck is going on with Oracle. Well, the OpenSolaris Governing Board is even out of the loop and disturbed by this situation. The board is threatening to dissolve itself by the end of next month.

At the OpenSolaris Governing Board meeting today, the following statement was agreed upon by all members:

The OGB is keen to promote the uptake and open development of OpenSolaris and to work on behalf of the community with Oracle, as such the OGB needs Oracle to appoint a liaison by August 16, 2010, who has the the authority to talk about the future of OpenSolaris and its interaction with the OpenSolaris community otherwise the OGB will take action at the August 23 meeting to trigger the clause in the OGB charter that will return control of the community to Oracle.

As said by Ben Rockwood, this basically means "start talking to us or we'll just shot ourselves in the head."

Let's see if Oracle folds under the pressure or what happens come next month.