I have been keeping an eye on this distro, especially because of it's interest in the illumos kernel, I honestly think there are way too many distros already out there on top of the linux kernel, even BSD is getting a lot of traction these days, but apart form contributions from projects like openindiana, the traction is still yet to be fully there for illumos, but being KDE based, I have for a long time wished to see kaOS use the illumos kernel and KDE on top.

I have seen some of the other posts about the state of illumos potentially coming to KaOS but due to complicated issues, it's still very hard to do so, but these posts are from 2013 or so, very old posts, it's been a decade since this project has launched, surely things revolving around illumos would have somewhat improved? So is there any possibility to see KaOS on illumos or is it forgotten considering it has been pretty much a decade since the project has launched on no concrete info on the possibility of this has been discussed any recently? I personally think, an illumos version will make this distro stand out, and not be "just another linux distro", I still have some hopes to see it happen one day.

@demm I would love to see a seperate alpha version of KaOS based on illumos, and it can stay on alpha/beta until it's ready, but why not offer that option besides linux, which can stay as the main version until the illumos version matures up (doesn't matter how long it could take, no hurries, let it take it's time)? I am a power user and I would love to have such an aplha or early version of KaOS based on illumos, and I am sure some people from the community can also contribute on improving the illumos version of KaOS.

If that's possible, I would immediately move to KaOS based on illumos, from opensuse linux. I really really hope you can kindly consider that because I think we can make more progress as a community, but for that, we need an alpha or an early version of KaOS on top of illumos.

There are no tools available, all will need to be written from scratch, like a modern system installer, package manager and so on, that has been the obstacle for 10 years.

    demm I see, why can't we use what other distros like openindiana already use? It may not be as modern but we can use what is already there and improve it from there. I can help you with documentation to make the process of installing it easier as well. I just really want KaOS to finally go ahead and work on top of illumos, atleats an early version.

    If we initiate this, it can also be of great inspiration for everyone else, I am sure other distros like openindiana has to use some kind of installer and package manager right? As you say, it's been 10 years, don't you think we should start from our side? How long will we wait? Not only will it be a great inspiration but such an initiative can be very fun to contribute and work with.

      Openindiana is the only thing you can test right now for Illumos (smartOS is really just for containers). Installer was bad last time tried, and all tools are GTK based.

      I understand, but we still have something which is much better than nothing. One of the big plus of KaOS on top of illumos (even if we use the same tools that openindiana uses for example, the same one for system installer or package management) would be the desktop environment (KDE Plasma), which is very customizable, desktop/user-friendly and modern. Openindiana has come a long way and is singlehandedly improving on top of illumos, even if their tools aren't great, they are progressing with what they have and are improving it.

      If KaOS really wants to embrace illumos seriously, we need to start with what we have and improve with what we have instead of waiting in the sidelines and contribute to illumos, and I am sure that our DE itself would be a huge improvement compared to something like openindiana which uses an old version of MATE I think, but MATE in general is not that great and KDE Plasma is so much better.

      So technically, we do have the fundemental tools needed for an alpha version of KaOS on top of illumos, I sincerely hope @demm you can kindly consider it, let's not wait any longer and let's start making the change today, every bit helps.

      BTW I am not sure why the installer is "bad", it's def not the best but I tried it a month ago and it "just worked", also thanks to their good documentation on the installation process. Many popular youtubers like distrotube have also started covering openindiana more, (with the most recent being last month from distrotube) and openindiana has absolutely come a long way, if they can do that, I think we can do it even better, the tools do exist, it's not like we have zero or nothing. Especially because of KDE Plasma DE, I really really want a version of KaOS on top of the illumos kernel.

      9 months later

      I want to know how can the illumos improve to bring close to linux version of OS

      3 months later

      Anything is needed before KaOS would switch to illumos?
      Could provide a package list (Apart from KDE)?

      • demm replied to this.

        shuryanc Unless you somehow base on OpenIndiana (which is against KaOS setup of building all primary for one toolkit--Qt--, they are mostly GTK based), all that is in the repo now will have to build from scratch, including toolchain.

          7 days later

          I'm very interesting to have kde 6 with illumos kernel with Pacmam package manager.

          6 days later

          As far as I know Qt does not support Illumos. Until Qt supports Illumos, we will just have to switch to GTK if we choose to switch to it but the Linux kernel is a better choice because it has more options for Qt development.

          a year later

          being honest i wouldnt really want it to be illumos-based anyways, KDE plasma to my knowledge only officially supports systemd which is linux-dependent, and Illumos has many regressions compared to the linux kernel and is not very robust for daily usage, has less FS support and other things.

          theres a reason everyone uses the linux kernel, its the only one suitable for widespread usage on pcs and supports hardware, unless you can get amd, intel, nvidia, etc to support illumos its honestly not a good idea to switch off of what is already widely-supported

          i would prefer if KaOS just stayed on linux because if KaOS used a different kernel i wouldnt be using the OS personally, using linux kernel makes the OS more suitable for daily usage.

          the only real upside to using Illumos that i could see would maybe be ZFS support directly in kernel, but even then its not difficult to get ZFS on linux as the developer because you can just integrate it into the installer as an install option with compatible bootloader and kernel module

          imo KaOS should just stay on linux, theres no reason to switch, its really the only one that works for all users, especially for gaming which imo is basically a necessity for computing for most pc users nowadays, especially now that gaming on linux is an official usecase for game devs and is well supported by valve