Cloud software developer Joyent announced that its SmartOS platform, which was once only a component of its SmartDataCenter and public cloud offerings, is now available under an open-source license.  Joyent CTO Jason Hoffmann refered to the server platform as the ““only modern OS” developed in the past decade during an interview with GigaOM.

“Joyent SmartOS is the first hypervisor platform to emerge in five years, and it’s the only cloud server solution that can manage both KVM hardware virtualization and operating system-level virtualization on a single OS,” said Jason Hoffman, founder and chief scientist of Joyent.”

SmartOS puts an emphasis on some of the trends we’ve been seeing in the enterprise space.  Its KVM hypervisor component makes use of virtualization hooks chip makers began to implement in the past few years, and it also makes use of the Sun-developed ZFS software to offer support for some of the more modern “collapsed” types of networks. SmartOS also makes use of another technology, the DTrace troubleshooting platform, and only needs 128 MB of RAM to boot. This last functionality means that it can be installed on smaller devices such as set-top boxes, and not just in datacenters.

Open-source platforms have been in the spotlights recently. Gluster announced it had expanded its storage options for OpenStack, the open-source OS initiative by Rackspace, back at Oscon 2011. Another major operating also had significant news, although more closer to the consumer.

Google unveiled some of its plans for Android yesterday with an announcement saying it will buy phonemaker Motorola for $12.5 billion. This essentially means that the internet giant is now competing with its own channel partners, but the acquisition does have some obvious value in it.  The company’s ownership of Motorola will also include its patents, which will help Google tackle the lawsuits it faces over Android. The manufacturer, set to become a separate unit of its own, will probably enable the company to take more control over its mobile ecosystem, too.