October 14th, 2004
Without a peep from Sun, JDS for Solaris ships
Without much fanfare, Sun Microsystems has released the Solaris x86 version of Release 2 of its Java Desktop System (JDS). To the extent that JDS includes an operating system, the typical OS accoutrements such as a browser (Mozilla), mail and calendaring client (Novell’s Ximian Evolution), and a graphical user environment (GNOME), and a complete productivity suite (Sun StarOffice) JDS is a soup-to-nuts alternative to other combinations of desktop operating systems and applications such as Microsoft’s Windows XP and MS-Office. Offically priced at $100 per year, JDS has been available for quite some time at Sun’s minivan dumping price of $50 per year.
But, whereas the Linux version, which is based on Novell SuSE Linux and has been available since May, should run on any system that’s compatible with SuSE Linux, this Solaris 9-based version only runs on Sun’s AMD Opteron-based Java Workstations (available through eBay at a "Buy it Now" price of $2815, and often less via auction). But, with Solaris 10 on the verge of release by the end of the year, and new versions of a lot of the technology (such as J2SE 5.0, aka Tiger) found in JDS also coming out, the Solaris-based release raises almost as many questions as it answers. More to come.
