SmartOS (like OmniOS, DelphixOS and the others) isn't a fork -- we're a downstream repo that merges from upstream on a daily basis, and regularly upstreams our

SmartOS (like OmniOS, DelphixOS and the others) isn't a fork -- we're a downstream repo that merges from upstream on a daily basis, and regularly upstreams our own work. This model has been very successful for illumos (in my opinion) because it has allowed for a broad degree of experimentation in production-oriented systems while still having a conduit for getting successful experiments upstream. And by the time we go to upstream something, it's generally been running in production for us for a while (and ditto other downstream repos), giving reviewers confidence and allowing us to maintain very, very high quality in illumos itself. (Prakash alluded to this in the linked blog post, and it's absolutely essential to assure that downstream repos can frequently merge.) The net is that we have found the work going into illumos to be exactly what you want upon integration: innovative, pragmatic work that has already proven itself in production.