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DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY / AUGUST 11, 2003; VOL. 2 NO. 32
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Systems/Enterprise:
SUN DEMONSTRATES ALTERNATIVE DESKTOP LEVERAGING JAVA & LINUX
In a keynote speech at LinuxWorld, Jonathan Schwartz, Sun's executive vice
president of software at Sun Microsystems Inc, challenged the status quo in
personal computing with the unveiling of a new Linux-based alternative desktop
and Java-based innovations that will shatter the dimensions of the traditional
user experience. Sun coupled this debut with a series of announcements
designed to accelerate the innovation and distribution of Java and Linux.
During his keynote, Schwartz also previewed -- for the first time publicly --
Project Mad Hatter, Sun's fully integrated open desktop environment for Linux,
Solaris and SunRay deployments that includes Java technology, the GNOME
desktop environment, Ximian Evolution and Sun's StarOffice productivity suite.
Sun's alternative desktop, due later this year, will deliver dramatically
lower per-seat costs in business environments while delivering familiar look
and feel, interoperability and comparable functionality to the typical PC more
securely. Schwartz also showed the future of this effort when he demonstrated
a three-dimensional evolution of the desktop built entirely in Java on Linux.
Sun will formally launch Project Mad Hatter at its SunNetwork conference in
September 2003.
"Project Mad Hatter will change the economics, definition and experience of
desktop computing," said Schwartz. "But this is only the beginning. The
combination of Java and Linux is a driving force -- bringing network services
to 1.2 billion devices supported by over 3 million developers. Our Linux
strategy is to leverage the powerful combination of Java and Linux to open and
grow new markets for network computing."
Finally, Schwartz reaffirmed Sun's commitment to open communities and open
standards by detailing its contribution of over 8 million lines of code to the
open source community, driving participation in OpenOffice.org, Mozilla.org,
java.net and its recent membership in the Open Source Development Lab (ODSL).
Sun's Key LinuxWorld Announcements Include:
Sun is joining Open Source Development Lab (OSDL): Sun joined OSDL, a global
consortium of leading technology companies dedicated to accelerating the
adoption of Linux, to help drive the development of open-standard software
including Linux and to lend its expertise in the data center and carrier-grade
markets.
Sun's x86-based systems, which run Solaris x86 or standard Linux
distributions, drive momentum in education and mid-market segments. Continuing
the reduction of cost and complexity for customers, the Sun Fire V65x system
was reduced in price. The Sun Fire V60x system will also receive a processor
upgrade to 3.06 Gz.
Last week, Sun and SuSE Linux announced a global alliance to expand the reach
of SuSE Linux and Java technology in the rapidly growing Linux market. Under
the terms of the agreement, Sun will ship and provide full customer support
for SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8 and SuSE committed to become a Java 2
Standard Edition source licensee. In addition, SuSE committed to distribute
Sun's Java Virtual Machine (JVM) to further expand the deployment of one of
the world's most popular application environment.
Sun Microsystems showcased growing momentum of Linux projects on java.net with
new, leading edge Linux telecommunications projects that demonstrate the
convergence of Java-Linux developer communities: jinux, a 100 percent Java
operating system on top of minimal Linux kernel; wirelessvoip, a Linux gateway
and DA via 802.11 that includes a Linux telephony server; and sip-
communicator, a JAIN-SIP video phone project. java.net, the source for Java
technology collaboration, was launched 60 days ago and is one of the fastest
growing collaboration communities with over 16,000 registered users, over 460
projects, more than 15 Java communities, and host to more than 40 Java
technology and community-related weblogs, and over 30 Java user groups from
more than 11 countries.
Sun also announced it has teamed with AMD to provide native Java technology
support for the 64-bit AMD Opteron processor. By supporting the 64-bit Linux
and Windows platforms on the AMD Opteron processor, Sun is allowing companies
to migrate their current Java applications from a 32-bit to 64-bit computing
platform with little or no changes to the code, as well as enabling the
development and deployment of new Java applications and Web services.
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