Solaris Archive

Sun Microsystems Inc. is readying a series of new features for its Solaris OS, some of which will become available to participants in its early-access program in the next three to four months. Elsewhere, Scott McNealy and company are trying to change the business model for software and in the process revive Sun’s prospects, Fortune Magazine is noticing.

"Before, Linux could run only on single- or dual-processor boxes," Yankee Group senior analyst Dana Gardner told the E-Commerce Times. "Now you're starting to see people many of these low-cost boxes in a gridlike fashion to perform highly intensive computing tasks." Read the part 1 of the article at eCommerceTimes. Sun stands behind Solaris from both a support and a legal standpoint, Sun's Bill Moffitt told the E-Commere Times. "As Scott McNealy says, it's a 'one-throat-to-choke' service," he said. "If there's a problem, you know who to call." Read the part 2 of the article.

For those interested in looking at the screenshots for Solaris 10 (with gnome pre-installed) and a dmesg checkout here. Update: It seems that the site got OSNews'ed moments after the story went live.

"Sun's primary focus continues to be on Unix -- the Unix product portfolio," says IDC research director Al Gillen. But that may be a risky strategy. "As Linux grows, if Sun's not riding that wave fully, they leave themselves open to losing part of the market.". The article is at NewsFactor. We recently wrote a related editorial about it too.

Sun is attacking the low end x86-based server market with force, as it has announcements around both AMD's Opteron processor and Intel's Xeon processor on the way, executives told TheRegister.

Lack of hardware and application support eclipses OS' potential benefits. When it comes to Unix, Sun Microsystems' Solaris operating system shines on the company's 64-bit SPARC processors. Unfortunately, the picture is less bright for the version of Solaris written for Intel's 32-bit Pentium family.

Sun Microsystems announced another milestone in its x86 computing strategy with support from leading independent software companies for the Sun Solaris 9 OS, x86 Platform Edition. Brooks Automation, Check Point, MatrixOne, RSA Security, and SunGard joined the growing list of Sun iForce(SM) partners such as Sybase supporting Solaris-based x86 platforms.

"When I interviewed Sun chief engineer Rob Gingell last August, he hinted at a blurring of the lines between Linux and Solaris, if not an outright merger. Said Gingell: "Five years from now, when all the tribes intermarry, who is going to know what's Solaris and what's Linux, and who's going to care?" Read the editorial at ZDNews.

Sun Microsystems Inc. last week rolled out two new commercial versions of the Trusted Solaris operating system for the x86 platform. The decision to make Trusted Solaris available on Intel-based servers is part of a larger overall strategy to renew the company's commitment to the Unix-based OS on that platform.

Sun Microsystems, Inc. today delivered on its redoubled commitment to the UNIX platform, extending the full benefits of the Solaris Operating System, to x86-based servers with the Solaris 9 x86 Platform Edition. Non-commercial usage is available at no charge, while commercial pricing starts at US $99; attractive OEM pricing is also available. Source code for Solaris will now be available.

John Mahala writes "Over the weekend, Sun released Solaris 9 for x86. You can check it out here. The cost is $20 to download, and there is no offering (yet) to purchase a Media Kit."

Jim wrote in to tell us about Sun posting the latest update of their Solaris/SPARC OS. The update, dated 12/02, is downloadable from the sun website here.

Ending nearly a year of debate with its users, Sun made available on its Web site an early access version of its Solaris 9 operating system that runs on Intel Corp. compatible processors. This is a beta version and it costs $20 USD to download. If you happen to get your hands to the beta and you would like to write a review of Solaris 9-x86, please do so, we will be happy to post it for you on OSNews.

This document details the configuration, hardening, monitoring and vulnerability assessment of the Solaris OE. It can also be used as a configuration standard, providing a baseline to audit against.