[nwilkens]

SmartOS is being actively developed since the aquisition from Joyent[1] in April 2022.

We've released a new version every two weeks post acquisition, and are continuing to develop and invest.

We also hold office hours events roughly every two weeks on Discord[2], and would love for you to stop by and ask any questions, or just listen along!

[1]: https://www.tritondatacenter.com/blog/a-new-chapter-begins-f... [2]: https://discord.gg/v4NwA3Hqay

[rjzzleep]

IllumOS needs to attract new developers. To do that, the platform build needs to become a lot more straightforward. It's a pretty huge endeavour in my opinion. I'd be happy to help out on that regard, but in the past Joyent has not been very open to outside support.

[jclulow]

I've noticed you make this comment repeatedly when illumos is mentioned on HN. I think you're underestimating the irreducible complexity of the build process for what is essentially a whole UNIX operating system, save for a few external dependencies. It's not just a kernel, but an extensive set of user mode libraries and executables. The build is complex in part because it's a complex body of software.

I also think you're overestimating the extent to which make(1S) is the reason we're not more popular than Linux. There are any number of more relevant factors that make someone choose one operating system or another. Also, certainly for me personally my goal is not world domination, merely the sustainable maintenance of a body of software that helps me solve the problems that I work on, and which I enjoy using and developing as a result.

I agree we need (as do all projects!) new developers, both now, and over the long term. We work as we can to make improvements to the build process, and the documentation. We are a relatively niche project, but we do attract new developers from time to time, and we're making changes at least as rapidly as we ever have in the past. There are a number of actively maintained illumos distributions (OmniOS, SmartOS, Tribblix, OpenIndiana, and now Helios) and there are a variety of commercial interests that ship more proprietary appliances on top of an illumos base. For our part at Oxide we continue to encourage our staff to get involved with illumos development as it makes sense for them, and we try to offer resources and assistance to the broader community as well.

If you would like to contribute, we have a guide to getting started: https://illumos.org/docs/contributing/

Please, though, it's "illumos", not "IllumOS"!