Oracle and SUN Archive

Xandros today launched Xandros Server Standard Edition 2, a complete, enterprise-grade SMB Linux server package including Xen virtualization and more than 30 other services. The new Xandros Linux server is compatible with existing Windows domain and networking topologies.

"I'm excited to let you all know that as of now Sun engineering will add its support to the ongoing Mac/Aqua porting effort. The MacOSX porting history is basically as old as OpenOffice.org itself. Practically from the start there was the plan to have a native version for Mac, however as a first step the community decided to produce an X11 port which - since OOo already had several X11 ports from the start - seemed to be a good way to get a version quickly as temporary solution. As usual the 'temporary solution' tended to be quite long lived."

Xandros today announced that Xandros Server 2.0 is the first product to be certified by the Linux Foundation through use of the LSB Distribution Testkit. Xandros engineers worked closely with their Linux Foundation counterparts in perfecting the new, automated testing procedures that will facilitate broad application developer support to Xandros Server 2.0 and all other standards-based Linux operating systems.

"Today Sun extends its position as the top contributor of code to the free and open source software community by donating its storage software code to the OpenSolaris Project. This will enable community members to combine OpenSolaris with hardware from any source to create new storage solutions at a fraction of the price of traditional proprietary storage vendors."

So, it's April 2007 and Sun Microsystems has just popped one of its 16-core Rock chips on CEO Jonathan Schwartz's desk. Schwartz posted pictures of the Rock silicon on his blog, bragging that 'the chips are running billions of instructions already'. Sun's customers must be encouraged by the Rock display, having suffered from about five years of delayed UltraSPARC chips. Servers based on the Rock family - Boulder and Pebble - should begin shipping in 2008.

"Sun has always been somewhat of a mysterious company, from its humble origins at Stanford University through the dotcom boom and out the other side. Its numerous changes of strategic direction have confounded attempts to pin the company down. One thing almost everyone agrees on, however, is that Sun still makes very powerful server hardware. So when I was offered the opportunity to get a guided tour of Sun's new 'Project Blackbox', I jumped at the chance."

"With the release of Linux-based Xandros Server 2.0 Standard Edition, well-known Linux desktop vendor Xandros offers compatibility and other services that may give Microsoft SharePoint Server some competition. In the new server, due in April, Xandros will include Netherlands-based O3Spaces Workplace 2.0 office collaboration software. With Workplace 2.0, users will be able to use OpenOffice.org, StarOffice, and/or Microsoft Office to work on documents in commonly hosted Xandros workplaces. At the same time, Xandros claims, the system enables everyone involved in the project to track the work being done on it."

Sun Microsystems is the latest company to become a patron of the Free Software Foundation. The FSF's corporate patron program allows companies to provide financial sponsorship for the FSF in return for free license consulting services. High-profile FSF patron affiliates include prominent technology companies like Google, Nokia, IBM, Cisco, and Intel. FSF involvement represents Sun's latest attempt to take a more active role in the open-source software community.

"As Chief Open Source Officer at Sun Microsystems, UK-based Simon Phipps' job could become ever more tiring, it seems. The biggest step the company has taken so far is definitely the announcement of the Java Development Kit (and Runtime Environment) becoming free software. We invited Simon to keynote at FOSDEM and, due to his busy schedule, interviewed him about Sun's position in the free software universe over the phone."

"Xandros today introduced a new software suite for IT administrators that enables Windows-to-Linux server and desktop integration and management, and deployment of systems that mix Linux, Unix, and Windows platforms, according to the company. Without 'bridging tools', a company spokesperson said, a computing environment can devolve into an unmanageable and costly-to-administer set of silo infrastructure components. Many IT organizations suffer from higher administration costs and inefficient business processes through lack of integration, according to the spokesperson."

In their joint announcement, Intel agreed to support the Solaris OS, while Sun will use a number of different Xeon processors in its x86 line of servers and workstations. In a collaboration that one CEO called 'historic', Sun Microsystems and Intel jointly announced a new partnership that will see both companies support the other's technology. The announcement, which had first been reported in the Wall Street Journal and formally detailed at a joint news conference in San Francisco on Jan. 22, will allow Sun to develop x86 servers using Intel's Xeon processors.

Sun this week announced a speed boost to its 'Niagara' UltraSPARC T1 processor line and confirmed the tapeout of the 'Rock' chips due out in the second half of 2008.

Project Looking Glass has hit the magical 1.0 mark: "This release is the culmination of 3 years of work, starting with Hideya san who originally conceived of a bold, new type of window system, through the initial shake down of the proof-of-concept demo by an internal Sun community, followed by the open sourcing of the technology, which generated such enormous interest that it brought down the java.net servers several times. From that point on many people from around the globe have contributed to the project; contributing to the core, contributing applications, performing testing, writing and translating documentation, etc. The project owners (Hideya, Paul, Krishna and myself) are very grateful for all of the great contributions we have received from you, the LG community."

I received word from my contact at Xandros that they are looking for Red Hat Server Sysadmins for beta testing of Xandros Cross-Platform Management Tools. Xandros recently released version 4.1 of their desktop OS and Xandros Desktop Management Server. OSNews readers make great candidates for this type of beta testing. If you're interested, read on for the details of the call for beta testers.