# OpenIndiana Reviews **Vendor:** OpenIndiana **Category:** [Operating Systems](https://www.g2.com/categories/operating-system) **Average Rating:** 4.1/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 9 ## About OpenIndiana OpenIndiana is a community fork of the OpenSolaris operating system. ## OpenIndiana Pros & Cons **What users like:** - Users value the **feature-rich platform** of OpenIndiana, benefiting from advanced tools and modern enhancements. (2 reviews) - Users value the **rich app ecosystem** of OpenIndiana, enhancing both server and desktop productivity with professional applications. (1 reviews) - Users appreciate the **extensive hardware support** in OpenIndiana, benefiting from its modern evolution and ZFS integration. (1 reviews) **What users dislike:** - Users struggle with the **lack of support** for OpenIndiana, making installation and troubleshooting more challenging. (2 reviews) - Users face **installation difficulties** with outdated packages and complex manual processes in OpenIndiana, impacting usability. (1 reviews) - Users struggle with **outdated technology** in OpenIndiana, facing installation issues and complex manual processes. (1 reviews) ## OpenIndiana Reviews ### 1. OPENINDIANA PRINCIPALS **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jeffrey K. | VICE PRESIDENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 28, 2025 **What do you like best about OpenIndiana?** PROFESSIONAL USERS ARE PROVIDED A FEATURE-RICH PLATFORM FOR SERVERS AND DESKTOPS. PROFESSIONAL USES OFFER A RICH ECOSYSTEM OF PROFESSIONAL APPLICATIONS WHICH INCLUDE OFFICE PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS. **What do you dislike about OpenIndiana?** INSTALLATION ISSUES WITH OUTDATED PACKAGES AND COMPLEX MANUAL PROCESSES. OPENINDIANA FACES CHALLENGES DUE TO IT'S LACK OF SUPPORT **What problems is OpenIndiana solving and how is that benefiting you?** PROFESSIONAL USES OFFER AN ADVANCED OBSERVABILITY TOOLS IN A CENTRALIZED SERVICE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM. PROFESSIONAL USES OFFER RESOURCES LIKE THE OPEN INDIANA DOCUMENTATION GUIDE. ### 2. Experience with OpenIndiana **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jose Alfredo A. | Docente Postgrado (Cursos de Actualización), Information Technology and Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 29, 2025 **What do you like best about OpenIndiana?** Free access to technologies based on ZFS, DTrace, and SMF, in addition to maintaining binary and conceptual compatibility with OpenSolaris **What do you dislike about OpenIndiana?** At the beginning, it is usually confusing or incomplete for new users due to its limited documentation. **What problems is OpenIndiana solving and how is that benefiting you?** It helps me in system debugging and especially in the configuration of my local networks. ### 3. Good technology for those who understand unix **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Scott B. | Unix Linux System Administrator III, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 02, 2025 **What do you like best about OpenIndiana?** Open Indiana is the evolution of Solaris with many modern changes. It supports ZFS by default, solving some hurdles with using ZFS on Linux. You also get LXC containers, which is preferred by some. **What do you dislike about OpenIndiana?** Find help can be a challenge. Information is not as prevalent as with Linux, but what you can find tents to be better quality. **What problems is OpenIndiana solving and how is that benefiting you?** Good stable foundation to build my infrastructure with. ### 4. Open source server for advanced users **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Mohamed S. | Senior Sales Associate, Hospitality, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 21, 2024 **What do you like best about OpenIndiana?** OpenIndiana really soars at its highest. It provided me with confidence about my server and weeks of running with no issues. The number of freely available OSSs is enormous, which makes it just great. It is like having a giant toolbox in terms of customization that is waiting at your beck and call. **What do you dislike about OpenIndiana?** The availability of the software becomes a two-edged weapon. Quite often one gets older versions of packages or if one is lucky has to compile them manually, which transforms simple installations into wild hunts. It is like searching for the right tool in an old dusty attic full of clutter and stuff. **What problems is OpenIndiana solving and how is that benefiting you?** I was struggling to find tools to create I was having a very smooth and stable creation. OpenIndiana project offers a very stable platform for my server. It is best suited for those who value availability and customization over accessibility. ### 5. Old content in new cover **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Rishu T. | Associate Manager Strategy, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 17, 2023 **What do you like best about OpenIndiana?** Its compatibility with other solaris applications,parellel processing where the user can select multiple commands from shell conf. **What do you dislike about OpenIndiana?** The Boot time,As mentioned in the title it is bit outdated system with very poort documentation and on top of that , the aesthetics are not appealing **What problems is OpenIndiana solving and how is that benefiting you?** It is very helpfule for ebugging the system & provides various networking, and virtualization options. It makes certain the availability of openly developed distribution based on OpenSolaris. ### 6. OpenIndiana used by organisations for [free] security updates and bug fixes. **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Srishti G. | SDET, Computer Software, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 13, 2023 **What do you like best about OpenIndiana?** 1- It handles various users at one time. 2-Freely users can use server . 3-It has initial support for mount install media via NFS. 4-From shell configuration user can select different commands. **What do you dislike about OpenIndiana?** 1- The timestamp is a little bit Outdated. 2- Documentation is poor. 3- It is not primitive compare to GNU/Linux. **What problems is OpenIndiana solving and how is that benefiting you?** 1- Used for Datalink Multipathing. 2- It is used for debugging systems. 3- It is used for network configuration. ### 7. Easy to use OS for the people who have worked with opensolaris **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 22, 2021 **What do you like best about OpenIndiana?** It supports a windowing GUI system along with a Command Line Interface shell. It provides the user to select different commands from shell configuration. It supports so many powerful open-source software. It provides next-generation features for downstream distributions. **What do you dislike about OpenIndiana?** Poor Documentation. The setup is outdated. The system takes much time to boot. The themes could have been better **What problems is OpenIndiana solving and how is that benefiting you?** It helps in debugging the system, networking, and virtualization options. It ensures the availability of openly developed distribution based on OpenSolaris and allows us to work on all the recently developed distribution. ### 8. " A Stable and Reliable Open-Source OS" **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer & Network Security | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 06, 2023 **What do you like best about OpenIndiana?** 1)Supports open source softwares 2) Provides variety of desktop environment option 3) User can select multiple commands from shell conf. 4)It is more compatible with solaris applications **What do you dislike about OpenIndiana?** 1) Insufficient documentation 2) should provide options to change theme, layouts **What problems is OpenIndiana solving and how is that benefiting you?** It focuses on providing a stable and reliable operating system. It helps in debugging the system. Its an opensource alternative to Oracle Solaris ### 9. Looking for an Open Source continuation of OpenSolaris? **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Roger M. | Sole Proprietor, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 26, 2018 **What do you like best about OpenIndiana?** I appreciate the timely software updates to ensure the OS is securely patched. It has all of the features of OpenSolaris (ZFS/Zones/DTrace/etc) along with new features that rival those of Oracle's Solaris 11 offering. **What do you dislike about OpenIndiana?** Sometimes new releases of the system aren't on a regular schedule but that can work itself out if more admins were to adopt this software. **Recommendations to others considering OpenIndiana:** Great Open Source alternative to closed source binaries from Oracle. The community is responsive although not as widespread as Linux distributions. Rock solid architecture make this the smart choice for basing your backend storage platforms on. **What problems is OpenIndiana solving and how is that benefiting you?** Providing ZFS-backed storage without the expense of support contracts/other fees from Oracle. Also benefiting from the binary application compatibility that Solaris is historically known for. ## OpenIndiana Discussions - [What is OpenIndiana used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-openindiana-used-for) - [View OpenIndiana pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/openindiana/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-05-21+17%3A33%3A42+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=ddfd497a-e4aa-4e32-acab-73d81b8e54b3&secure%5Btoken%5D=7465eea3d0e9f7ac3b73f453ceaf61781e50ecee1e2917f6d8aeb94de9df2feb&format=llm_user) ## OpenIndiana Features **Memory Management - Operating System** - RAM management **Device Management - Operating System** - I/O management **Backup and Recovery - Operating System** - Data backup **Error Detection - Operating System** - System operations monitoring ## Top OpenIndiana Alternatives - [Red Hat Enterprise Linux](https://www.g2.com/products/red-hat-enterprise-linux/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (930 reviews) - [Ubuntu](https://www.g2.com/products/ubuntu/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (2,330 reviews) - [macOS Sierra](https://www.g2.com/products/apple-macos-sierra/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (474 reviews)