The OpenSolaris development community launched version 2008.11, its second release ever, Wednesday. The new version boosts hardware compatibility and brings some impressive improvements that illuminate the potential of OpenSolaris as a desktop platform. It's still not capable of replacing Linux on the desktop, but it shows promise.

OpenSolaris is Sun's desktop-oriented open-source distribution of the Solaris operating system. It is designed with a strong emphasis on ease of use and is intended to provide a fully functional desktop system right out of the box. It includes the latest software and offers a diverse assortment of applications ranging from development tools to multimedia players.

OpenSolaris emerged from Project Indiana, an effort to reinvent the disparate open-source Solaris bits as a cohesive desktop solution that could be installed from a Live CD.

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