[OpenIndiana-discuss] where does oi stand with illumos

[Harry Putnam]

Jim Klimov <jimklimov at cos.ru> writes:

> On 2014-03-28 20:07, Harry Putnam wrote:
>> I've lost track of developments regarding where things stand between
>> OI and Illumos.
>>
>> I see many of the same posters in both lists... And from the posts,
>> I'm getting the impression that if one updates beyond 151_a8, they
>> would then be running Illumos.
>>
>> Can anyone clarify that matter?
>
> In Linux-like terms, "illumos" is closer to a "kernel", while "OI"
> is one of many distributions based on this kernel (either "vanilla"
> or a forked version).
>
> Actually, the "illumos-gate" (the repository name) and its compiled
> products are also known as an "OS/Net consolidation", in that they
> include not only the kernel and drivers per se, but also much of
> the core software needed for running a Solaris-like OS, like the
> system shell, many of the management programs and daemons, etc.
>
> It is also quite possible to replace the "illumos" part in an OI
> installation with your own compiled most-recent one, though if you
> take the "vanilla" sources, you'd lose the OI branding on your own
> updated kernel (AFAIK there are no other changes in OI branch,
> unlike some of the other distros which can diverge noticeably).
> Not that branding is hard to re-apply... and I actually planned
> on writing about that on the Wikis sometime in the future ;)

Thanks for that... its much more than I ever knew.  But also seems
hard to get a handle on.

When one uses the software manager gui to do a upgrade, on an os
installed from oi-dev-151a8*.iso, I see the 'Publisher defaults to
openindiana.org/dev. So does an upgrade involve pulling stuff from
illumos-gate?
 
I think I'm not grasping the idea here.  Sorry if I seem pretty dense.
The fact is, I am pretty dense....

Is illumos a stand alone operating system?  

When one installs from an oi-dev-151a8-live-x86.iso is one installing
both illumos and a sort of wrapper of oi?
It does say 'powered by illumos'