Solaris Archive

"Sun Microsystems Inc. this week revealed that user feedback has led the company to reconsider its decision to halt development of a version of the Solaris operating system for Intel Corp.'s 32-bit chip architecture." Read the story at ComputerWorld.

"Changes are afoot within Sun's software organization as the server maker looks to replace a veteran Java executive and is revamping its StarOffice and Solaris products. Gina Centoni, who has worked with Sun's Java initiative for five and a half years, has left the company to work for phone software maker Openwave Systems, Sun spokeswoman Mah Goh said. Most recently, Centoni was senior director of product marketing for the Sun One initiative, the company's highest-priority software project as it strives to catch up to Microsoft in Web services." Read the rest of the article at ZDNews.

"Sun dealt a double-blow to its users last week by ending the Solaris download program for Intel-based computers and saying it won't support Intel with its upcoming Solaris 9 operating system. The moves have angered some Solaris fans, who offered to start paying for the software if Sun would keep its support for Intel alive. Sun has since agreed to meet with users in the coming weeks to discuss ways that the Solaris-on-Intel program could be reinstated, said Graham Lovell, director of product marketing for Solaris. Sun has also battled with Intel over support for Solaris on Intel's 64-bit Itanium architecture. Sun started work on a version of Solaris for Itanium, but the project was later cancelled. Both companies have pointed fingers at each other for ending the work." Read the rest of the story at InfoWorld.

OSNews reader Ken Crandall writes: "According to CNet, Sun has decided to indefinitely postpone the release of Solaris 9 for Intel processors citing the economy (read: lower demand for new hardware) and the "bottom line" (read: due to Linux and BSD, even lower demand for Solaris on x86) as reasons. They did mention, however, that they 'retain the option to do (Solaris on Intel) in the future'."

ZDNet reports that Sun Microsystems has initiated beta testing for the next version of its Unix operating system, Solaris 9. The new version runs on Sun's UltraSparc or Intel's 32-bit processors, and includes new features to streamline software upgrades and manage system resources. The final version of Solaris 9 should be available to Sun customers some time in 2002 and it will also feature Gnome 2.0 (which released its first alpha version just yesterday) as the default desktop instead of CDE.