Platform Support

CIAO 3.3 has been made available for the platforms listed below:

Solaris 8 (SunOS 5.8)

Note that we no longer support Solaris 2.6 (SunOS 5.6) and Solaris 7 (SunOS 5.7); CIAO will not run on these platforms.

Redhat Linux 6.2

This build will work well on most Linux platforms, and is thus labelled as "linux 6" on the download page. The binaries are compatible with Redhat 7.x and SuSE 7.x.

Redhat Linux 8

This build will work on Redhat 8, and is thus labelled as "linux 8" on the download page. Several users have also reported successful installation and use on RedHat 9 machines (a binary-compatible platform), as well as other flavors of Linux (e.g. Debian, Fedora, Mandrake).

Mac OS X 10.2.8 (Jaguar)

The binaries are generally compatible with Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther) and 10.4 (Tiger). Some users of the newer operating systems have reported occasional memory problems in the software; please send these issues to the Helpdesk so that we may determine if they are platform-specific.

The CIAO team is working on adding the Intel Mac as a supported platform. This addition will take place sometime in 2007. A few users have installed the Mac OS X 10.2.8 version of CIAO on these machines, but we cannot say which tools will and will not work without problems.

Please read the bugs and caveats page for a particular application to see if there are known issues and contact the Helpdesk if you have any problems.

Note on Linux Platforms

In November 2003, the Red Hat Network stated that they will discontinue maintenance on Red Hat Linux 7.x and 8.0 by the end of December 2003, and on Red Hat 9.0 by the end of April 2004. Additionally, they do not plan to release another product in the Red Hat Linux line.

Several users have emailed us about the future of CIAO on Linux platforms on account of this announcement. For the current time (e.g. CIAO 3.x), we will continue to produce two versions of the Linux build: linux6 and linux8 (see above for details). We are looking into migrating to a Linux Standard Base (LSB) build for CIAO 4.0, which would allow CIAO to run on nearly every current Linux distribution.

While we currently offically support only these versions of Red Hat Linux, in general the linux8 build has worked without issue with most modern Linux platforms. If the user encounters problems then they should try the linux6 build.

Explanation of Platform Support

The CXC's commitment to support a platform - i.e. a version of an operating system - means that we undertake to fix bugs on that system. This requires that we are able to compile CIAO from source on each platform, which is a much greater committment than simply providing a compatible binary. Additionally, it is typically necessary to support three versions of each operating system: former, current and new.

Currently Supported

• Solaris 8
• Linux Redhat 6.2
• Linux Redhat 8.0
• Mac OS X 10.2.8

Binary Compatible Only

• Linux Redhat 7.x
• Linux Redhat 9.0
• Linux SuSE 7.x
• Mac OS X 10.3

When we support a system:

1. We test every tool on every platform via a large number of regression tests and scripts; this requires a greater amount of time when the number of systems increases.
2. We have to have current machines running each of these systems.
3. We make a tarball and install it on each system; this process is never problem-free, and takes manpower and time.

As a result, we are not able to support a larger number of systems than we currently do. We gather information from users on what platforms they are running (or want to use) in order to prevent the overextension of our resources to little-used platforms.