October 26th, 2004
Why Sun's JDS deserves a try
Earlier this month. Sun released — but did not announce — a Solaris-based version of Release 2 of its Java Desktop System (JDS). For a $50-per-year subscription, Sun is offering an operating system (Novell’s SuSE Linux or Sun’s Solaris 9, both for x86), full-blown productivity suite (StarOffice), Exchange-compatible e-mail and calendaring, Java development tools, and upgrade protection. Why would Sun not be drawing your attention to a bargain like JDS? Looking beyond the bottom-line friendliness, it takes some work to understand whether JDS is all it’s cracked up to be, and whether or not it might be a fit for your company. Now’s a perfect time to try both the Linux and Solaris versions. David explains why.
