I assume that the time traveller knows Open Solaris up to 2010.
Someone used Linux facilities that are somewhat similar to Solaris Zones and ZFS snapshots (you'll know those, since Solaris 10 from 2005 shipped with that and wasn't even the first) to build an ecosystem for lightweight virtual systems with standardized interfaces. That system is called Docker (and runs on Linux, obviously)
OpenSolaris is all but dead, but a community succeeded it, called IllumOS. People from that community decided to attempt to use Solaris Zones, with Linux branded zones (that capability was dropped in the meantime so they had to invest some effort to bring it up again) to reimplement Docker on an IllumOS (ie. OpenSolaris) foundation.
Someone used Linux facilities that are somewhat similar to Solaris Zones and ZFS snapshots (you'll know those, since Solaris 10 from 2005 shipped with that and wasn't even the first) to build an ecosystem for lightweight virtual systems with standardized interfaces. That system is called Docker (and runs on Linux, obviously)
OpenSolaris is all but dead, but a community succeeded it, called IllumOS. People from that community decided to attempt to use Solaris Zones, with Linux branded zones (that capability was dropped in the meantime so they had to invest some effort to bring it up again) to reimplement Docker on an IllumOS (ie. OpenSolaris) foundation.