One Year with OpenSolaris

I was rooting around in my old mail tonight. I keep all my pre-release (pilot) OpenSolaris mail in a single IMAP folder for historical purposes (filled with goodies, so if anyone writes a "The History of OpenSolaris" book, let me know). For grins I dropped to the bottom of the folder and there she was, the beginnings of my involvement with OpenSolaris: Subject: OpenSolaris Pilot Program: Invite -- Ben Rockwood/Cuddletech dated October 17th, 2004.

It all started days earlier, on October 13th when I mailed some guy named Jim Grisanzio started a blog on blogs.sun.com and mentioned my Slashdot review of Solaris Systems Programming. Two things hit me like a ton of bricks when I saw his blog: "OpenSolaris" and "Community Manager". Woah. I'd heard rumblings about OpenSolaris, but there was no contact, no way to get involved. All the sudden I had an in. Immediately I sent him the following message on October 13th:

Hello Jim.

This is undoubtadly forward of me, but I've got to ask... is there anyway 
I could get involved with and help with OpenSolaris?  I'm a long time 
Solaris zealot, and an open source developer.  I don't know what needs to be 
done, but out here in the open source world you don't get involved unless 
you ask, so I'm asking.  I'm even local (Fremont, drive past MPK on the 
way to work) and should still have a Sun NDA on file.  :)

Let me know.  Thanks.

benr.

How far we've come since then. Mind you, there was no soliciation for pilot members, I just mailed him out of the blue, assuming he had a standard issue Sun email address. And isn't it a good thing he did.

While this might seem to be about me, its really not... its about Jim. Jim has held the banner and been at the forefront of change at Sun, first with his blog, then with OpenSolaris; which are, in reality, one in the same. Had it not been for his blogging and his visibility people like me wouldn't have been able to get involved in the pilot so early on and been a part of so many of the monumental things that have happened in this last year, from the creation, revisions, and release of CDDL to the DTrace code preview release following Blue Monday to the official release in July. I've been immensely blessed and privileged to be part of so much with so many amazing people over the last year. Its been an amazing ride and that ride is just beginning... there is a lot to do and a lot to gain in the months and years ahead, we're just starting out in the scheme of things. And we have a lot of people to thank for it, too many to name, but perhaps the cornerstone was Jim who made it possible for so many of us to get on board this amazing thing that Sun was doing. So, to you Jim, I raise a pint on my OpenSolaris anniversary. (Belated of course, like all good anniversaries.)

zane (Email) (URL) - 12 June '06 - 22:00

melony (Email) (URL) - 13 June '06 - 00:12

calvin (Email) (URL) - 13 June '06 - 16:03

america (Email) (URL) - 13 June '06 - 16:15

britney (Email) (URL) - 13 June '06 - 18:59

kori (Email) (URL) - 14 June '06 - 02:21