Solaris 2.1 for x86 (2017)

Summary

Solaris 2.1 for x86, also known as SunOS 5.1, was Sun’s first entry into the PC market (technically it was SunSoft, a subsidiary of Sun Microsystems, who released Solaris). However, it wasn’t Sun’s first x86 operating system. In the late 1980s, Sun sold 386i workstations based on Intel 386 processors. The 386i workstations were not PC compatible and ran SunOS 4.0, a BSD UNIX derivative with many custom Sun enhancements. In Summer of 1993, SunSoft released Solaris 2.1 for x86. At that time, Sun was not selling any x86-based systems and Solaris 2.1 targeted standard (if such a term is not a complete oxymoron) PC hardware. With a small caveat that Solaris needed a bit more than a typical PC of the era, ideally a fast 486 with 16MB RAM. The Solaris operating system was the result of Sun’s cooperation with AT&T on the development of System V, Release 4 (SVR4). It implemented both BSD and System V programming interfaces, and on x86 there were also provisions for compatibility with XENIX applications (although it is unclear how workable to compatibility layer was). Solaris 2.1 for x86 was distributed on CD-ROMs, not on tapes like most other UNIXes of that era. It came with a boot floppy, since bootable CD-ROMs were not yet standardized. Solaris could be also installed over the network, again with the aid of a boot floppy. Purely floppy based installation was not an option. Only SCSI CD-ROM controllers were supported because the ATAPI standard did not exist yet; however, Solaris could be installed onto standard ATA disks. Solaris Kernel Solaris 2.1 was a very modern UNIX system designed for both workstation and server use. Unlike traditional UNIXes, the Solaris kernel did not need to be recompiled to accommodate hardware changes; instead, loadable modules were used. At that time, only Windows NT had similar support for dynamic kernel module loading, although Solaris 2.1 for x86 was in fact released before Windows NT 3.1 (approximately May vs. July 1993). Solaris was also mo...