Sun Ships Solaris 9 Update, Unveils Solaris 10 Linux Project PlansSun Ships Solaris 9 Update, Unveils Solaris 10 Linux Project Plans

As it prepares for the formal rollout of Solaris 10 later this year, Sun Microsystems announced another update to its existing Solaris 9 and the pre-release of features slated for its next-generation Unix/x86 operating system.

The Solaris 9 update released Wednesday, the sixth update since Solaris 9 shipped in 2002, is certified for the Sun Fire V20z server, which uses an optimized version of Advanced Micro Devices' Opteron processor, and new support for Sun's UltraSPARC IV processors, said Bill Moffitt, group manager of Solaris product management at Sun.

The Sun Fire V20z server is the first in a family of Opteron-based products from Sun following a strategic alliance announced by AMD and Sun late last year.

The Solaris 9 update released this week also offers improvements to the Solaris Volume Manager and performance improvements, Sun said.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based Unix company also announced an OEM deal with Rackable Systems of San Jose. As part of that deal, Rackable Systems plans to distribute Solaris 9 for x86 on its high-end rack-mount servers for large-scale data center deployments, Sun said.

Looking ahead, Sun also plans to make available next week advanced functionality planned for Solaris 10, including an improved Web interface for installing and patching software, new technology that reduces spam e-mail as it arrives from the network, and automatic file-system logging, Sun said. The features will be available as part of Sun's Solaris Express program beginning April 12.

The new version of the Web-based patch manager will enhance security, while the spam filter is fully integrated into Solaris and works well with Sendmail on Solaris, Moffitt said.

Last month, Sun made available other pre-release Solaris 10 functionality as part of Solaris Express, including N1 grid containers, a dynamic tracing (DTrace) tool and a cryptographic framework with process rights management. Those features are available for download now.

Sun also recently unveiled a new project under way for Solaris 10, code-named Janus.

Project Janus is software that will enable Linux applications to run unmodified and un-recompiled at near-native speed on Sun's Solaris OS, said a Sun spokesman He added that Project Janus is aimed at preserving the investment Linux users have already made if they transition to the Solaris OS.

Project Janus will be available as part of a Software Express release later this year and with Solaris 10, which remains on track to ship by year's end, Moffitt said.

While some observers question Sun's commitment to Linux in light of its sweeping partnership announced with Microsoft last week, Sun said the interoperability pact will help all proprietary and open-source operating systems play together nicely.

"We think it's good for our customers no matter what operating system you're using," Moffitt said, noting that Solaris Unix-to-Linux interoperability is strong today but better integration with Windows will help the industry significantly. "The interoperability story across three dominant operating system going forward [is better]."

Mark Hatch, COO of Integrated Computer Solutions, a Cambridge, Mass.-based Unix ISV and consulting firm, said Solaris continues to be popular among developers, but he doesn't see much demand for it on non-Unix x86 platforms or among those working with Linux.

"More platforms are always good. But from an ISV's point of view, Opteron is effectively an extension to the Solaris/Intel product, not the Solaris/Sparc product," Hatch said. "Porting to Opteron is another development effort [for us] and it needs to be justified on the basis of demand. Solaris/Intel was never successful enough among our customers, software developers, to do the port, so I'm skeptical that Solaris/Opteron will attract a sufficient number of developers to create a business case for us to do the port," he said.