Todd Vierling <tv@duh.org> wrote:
> On Wed, 28 Sep 2005, Chris Humphries wrote:
> 
> > Just noticed that version string for solaris 10 is noted
> > as 2.10 when it should 5.10.
> 
> Well, technically, Solaris 10 == Solaris 2.10 == SunOS 5.10.  "Solaris 2" is
> the name typically associated with the "SunOS 5" series of OS releases.
> The shift at SunOS 5.7 to the marketing name "Solaris 7" (rather than
> "Solaris 2.7") is yet another cosmetic layer.
> 
> <sigh>

Exactly!

 Long ago, Sun decided to change SunOS from BSD to SYSVile.  About that
time, they also decided to start referring to OpenWindows (X11) + SunOS as
"Solaris."  So the following was true in 1994:

Solaris 1.x = SunOS 4.x (BSD) + OpenWindows

Solaris 2.x = SunOS 5.x (SYSVile) + OpenWindows.

 Unfortunately, because they introduced the term "Solaris" at the same
time they released the SYSVile SunOS, most people just started using the
term "Solaris" to refer to SunOS 5.x (SYSVile), and "SunOS" to mean SunOS
4.x (BSD).

 Then, in about 1997 or 1998, some bright marketeer at Sun decided that
going from Solaris 2.6 to Solaris 2.7 was not impressive enough, so they
went to Solaris 7. And now they bump that number with every
release. (sigh)

Anyway, if you type "uname -r" on a "Solaris" machine, you will get back
the version of SunOS, which would be 5.10 for a Solaris 10 machine.

 -johan

ps. I have a mug with "Solaris 2.7" on it because i was a beta tester, so
it really was a last minute change...