“Sun releases Solaris 9, along with a plan to integrate its Sun One Java application server software into the operating system. Could the move change the competitive landscape in a lucrative market?” Read the extended series of articles at ZDNews about the release of Solaris 9.
Will Sun’s Solaris 9 shine?
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
Solaris 9 is definately a major leap. And I think the Sun One application server is a huge thing.
There are those who claim Java is going down the drain and that C# will kill it. But C# will be mostly propreitary. And Java support is still growing. For example, OS X has the Java VM very tightly integrated in it, and many of its system utilities are written in Java. Dell and Compaq are preloading the JRE on their new systems.
Sun isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. And neither is Java.
java is amazing. . . but i can’t say that solaris too.
yerterday i tried to install solaris 8 10/01 in my box (amd 1800+, 512mb ram, barracuda ata iv hd), it was faster (much faster) than my old dual celeron 466 but solaris still SLOW on x86 hardware. . . ok, speed isn’t a “serious” problem.
after install i grab my Sun ONE Starter Kit, pick up disc no. 3 and . . .OPPPS! there isn’t ANY java support for the solaris x86; only win32 and solaris sparc (of course, linux).
people can download solaris for free (non commercial use), people can download java sdk for free but most people don’t have (and can’t buy) sparc base hardware.
if people can’t play with them, people can’t love them.
🙂
long live FreeBSD.
This has been discussed elsewhere, but the jist of it is that if you’re really interested in Solaris, you owe it to yourself to find yourself a SPARC box. New ones can be had for less than $1000, and eBay has plenty of used bargains.
The IA-32 version of Solaris never really caught on, and is little more than a curiosity right now. But it is there for you to “play with”, as you say.
If you want Java and other stuff packaged up all together with a bow, you might want to try something like SuSE Linux, which includes a truly impressive array of contributed software. Solaris was intended to be administered be administrators who earn their pay, therefore it’s not wrapped up all neat like a consumer product. If you want slick packaging, then you really don’t want Solaris.
“java is amazing. . . but i can’t say that solaris too.”
Solaris is amazing as well… IF you run it on the hardware it was originally designed to run on.
“yerterday i tried to install solaris 8 10/01 in my box (amd 1800+, 512mb ram, barracuda ata iv hd), it was faster (much faster) than my old dual celeron 466 but solaris still SLOW on x86 hardware. . . ok, speed isn’t a “serious” problem.”
Solaris x86 was optimized for SMP, so it did have some performance bottlenecks on single CPU systems. But for now, Solaris x86 is dead anyway so it is a non-issue.
“…but most people don’t have (and can’t buy) sparc base hardware. if people can’t play with them, people can’t love them.”
This isn’t true anymore. The Sublade 100 starts at $995 minus monitor. You aren’t going to find a better price for admission to 64 bit computing anywhere. (Yes Eugenia, I know you don’t like the Sunblade 100. But I love it). So pretty much anyone who can afford a computer these days can buy Sparc based hardware.
Don’t get me wrong… I’m a big UNIX/Linux/BSD supporter. But surely I’m not the only one that smells a bit of hypocrisy here?
What do you mean by slow? I’m guessing that you’re reffering to CDEs response. CDE is slow. Try using some other window manager. I use WindowMaker and it’s a HUGE improvement over CDE. The other thing you might want to try is XFree86. I don’t know what kind of video card you have, but it’s almost a sure bet that the XFree’s driver are faster.
L8R
No, you can still remove it and install BEA or whaterver else.
Besides Microsoft already include an application server in windows – and HP & IBM also bundle app servers.
I would like to know which version it is though. We got a sun machine in work in work last year and it came with the aplication server also (this is not exactly news!).
However if you want to deploy a J2EE you require the enterprise edition and that was $20,000 – $40,000 per CPU (It’s free for development).
AFAIK the machine we got was a Sun Blade 100 or something very similar, it was very nice – the build quality is excellent. Don’t compare it to a PC because thats not what it’s designed to be or sold for.
You also don’t want to use it as a desktop machine – at least not without good ear protection!
If Solaris 9 is that much better than Sol 8, as Sol 8 is better than Sol 7, then I’m very hopeful. And Sol 7 was amazing already: top-notch thread management, fantastic platform for high-performance web-servers/services…
jeje
maybe a sun workstation is the right tool for solaris stuff; a few months ago i wanted to buy a sun blade 100, one week (and hundreds of reviews )later i drop the idea.
good reviews, bad reviews, etc. . . i’ll waiting until i work in a company with sun servers.
or buy mine.
😮
Sun could save us the trouble of spending 1000 on a blade 100 and just make the fricken thing IA32/64 ready.
Come on Sun! Throw us a fricken bone here.
Why don’t you throw Sun a bone? They’re having the financial troubles, you know. Maybe if you bought a thing or two from them, they wouldn’t have a need to withold Solaris from non-SPARC users. They’re willing to meet you halfway, with the Blade 100, X1 etc. Do your part, mkay?