Solaris

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Solaris
Character Information
Common Names	Solaris
Other Names	SunOS (formerly) OpenSolaris (formerly)
Faction	Linux Unix Consortium
Lineage	BSD (SunOS) UNIX SVR4 (Solaris)
Rival(s)	Linux; assorted other Unixen
Appearance
Height	165 cm (5 ft 5 in)
Hair Color	Orange
Eye Color	Violet or red
Weapon(s)	Electrokinesis, magnetokinesis, reverse empathy
Design
First Appearance	2007
Technical Information
System Personified	All SunOS and Solaris releases
Developer(s)	Sun Microsystems
Debut	1983-06 (SunOS) 1992-06 (Solaris)
Latest release	11.4 (2018-08-28)

Technical Details

Originating from SunOS, Solaris is a Unix operating system used mainly in servers and workstations. It is notable for a high level of scalability and number of advanced features.

Character details

General

Solaris-tan as a child.

Solaris-tan is depicted as a fit woman of average height, with short, somewhat spiky orange hair, either purple or red eyes, and, occasionally, oval glasses. She commonly wears business-like attire in purple, gray, and red (referencing the main color scheme of Solaris' CDE desktop), and has also been depicted in an elegant gold dress with sun-themed jewelry; earlier renditions put her in a purple waiter's outfit and apron, referencing Solaris's server nature and her in-story role as proprietress of a coffee shop.

Another early design from Japan portrays Solaris as a redheaded girl with red eyes and glasses, wearing either a simple white outfit emblazoned with a Sun Microsystems logo, or in a magical girl outfit. In the OSC storyline proposals, this design is considered a representation of Solaris-tan's young self.

While highly intelligent and possessing a good work ethic, her demeanor is hot-headed and competitive, sometimes to the point of belligerence and rash behavior. Among the UNIX Family, she is one of the highest-ranked of UNIX-tan's daughters; she is well-aware of this fact and acts with consummate haughtiness. Since delving into open sourcery, she has attempted to be more humble and genuinely sociable, but her continuing rivalries with other prominent Unixen tends to push her — and their — patience to the limits.

Her “day job” as the owner of a coffee shop seems to go against both her social status and her personality, but by all accounts she is a good manager and waitress. It is unknown how she came about opening a coffee shop, whether it arose from some inner desire to have a "normal" job, or if it was ordered by UNIX-tan as a way to help Solaris develop a sense of humility.

Solaris-tan's sourcery is extremely powerful and just as subtle. She has the powers of electro- and magnetokinesis, which can manifest on large scales (e.g. telekinetically controlling metallic objects) or small (e.g. controlling the minds of other OS-tans).

Family and relationships

UNIX and Linux

Solaris-tan and UNIX-tan's relationship is best described as somewhat strained. While she is rewarded for being one of the strongest and most successful of her grandchildren, UNIX-tan is irritated by her arrogance and short-tempered nature.

Her relationship with Linux-tan is similarly complex, viewing her as a mix of rival and inspiration.

Spring OS

Spring OS-tan was her younger sister, born in the early 1990s. Spring OS-tan was sickly her whole life, too weak to fight in the Unix Wars and didn't understand why the family was torn in war. Solaris-tan was initially motivated to fight, promising Spring OS that she could end the war and restore peace to the family, and that they could spend more time together afterwards. She died before the end of the war. Her death greatly upset Solaris-tan, and drove her toward her current selfish state.

Appearances in works

Solaris-tan appeared as a major antagonist in Bella's Linux-tan comic, fighting against Linux because she thought Linux would destroy the already war-torn Unix Family.

• Page 42 of the aforementioned comic, showing Solaris-tan and Spring OS-tan
• Page 43