System News for Sun Users - The Blog

The OpenOffice.org community is looking for regular users of OpenOffice.org to test and evaluate the just released OpenOffice.org 3.0 public beta release, which is immediately available in US English for MS-Windows, GNU/Linux, Mac OS X and OpenSolaris platforms.

New core features included in this beta release:

• 1.1 Mac OS X Support
• 1.2 ODF 1.2 support
• 1.3 Microsoft Office 2007 Import Filters
• 1.4 Solver
• 1.5 Chart Enhancements
• 1.6 Improved Crop Feature in Draw and Impress
• 1.7 Spreadsheet Collaboration Through Workbook Sharing
• 1.8 1024 Columns Per Calc Sheet (Instead of 256)
• 1.9 Display of Multiple Writer Pages While Editing
• 1.10 Improved Notes Feature in Writer
• 1.11 New, Fresh-Looking Icons
• 1.12 Start Center

For the complete list of features since version 2.0: http://marketing.openoffice.org/3.0/featurelistbeta.html

For information on reporting bugs, testing new features, etc.: http://marketing.openoffice.org/3.0/announcementbeta.html

Download: http://download.openoffice.org/3.0beta

Developers creating applications on the OpenSocial platform can receive free hosting on Sun servers through Joyent. Sun and Joyent have partnered to make this offer available through Joyent’s Free Accelerator program.

With the OpenSocial Developers Program, developers will have access to a Joyent OpenSocial Developer Accelerator, which includes everything necessary to develop and deploy OpenSocial application. Developers will receive root access to a virtualized machine that includes all the tools for developing OpenSocial applications. This program is free for six months. The only requirement is that the OpenSocial application is active and in use.

Sun and Joyent have been offering free hosting to applications built for the Hi5 network, which was the first to release a complete set of APIs, reported Marshall. According to Sun, those applications over the past three weeks are already generating 100 million page views a month.

Led by Google, the OpenSocial platform is an effort to bring together multiple social networking companies to agree upon common standards so that developers can make a single application that works on all networks. Reportedly, Sun will be offering a separate program for Facebook soon.

Important new releases now available:

OpenSolaris 2008.05

The OpenSolaris Operating System is a single distribution for desktop, server and HPC deployments based on the Solaris kernel and created through community collaboration. It features a new Image Packaging System (IPS), ZFS as the default filesystem, DTrace-enabled packages for extreme observability and performance tuning and more. Download.

NetBeans 6.1 and Early Access for PHP

This release extends language support beyond Java technology by providing a rich set of features for C/C++, JavaScript and the Ruby language, including Ruby on Rails. One of the downloads available is an Early Access preview of support for PHP. Advance versions of new modules, such as JavaScript debugger, support of ClearCase, AXIS, and Hibernate are available as separate plugins.11. Download.

VirtualBox 1.6

This is a major update and includes:

• Solaris and Mac OS X host support
• Seamless windowing for Linux and Solaris guests
• Guest Additions for Solaris
• A webservice API
• SATA hard disk (AHCI) controller
• Experimental Physical Address Extension (PAE) support

VirtualBox is a general-purpose full virtualizer for x86 hardware targeted at server, desktop and embedded use. It is the only professional-quality virtualization solution that is open source. Download.

GlassFish Version 3 Technology Preview 2

A milestone release of the GlassFish v3 Application Server, TP2 is not a full, feature-complete application server and is not suitable for production deployments. It is suitable for experimentation and exploration. This release contains a subset of all features in the GlassFish v3 Application Server and of the technologies in the Java EE 5 platform, which means it has just the core v3 modules, Java EE web tier technologies, the Java Persistence API, and non-Java programming language containers. Download.

Dirtracer v 6.0.6

Sun Gathering Debug Data Script dirtracer - collects all parts of Sun Java System Directory Server environment that are useful for debugging, such as log files, database, information platform information, and others. Available for Solaris SPARC, Solaris x86, Linux and HP-UX

The Dirtracer Corner blog offers some insight on the major changes in this edition.

There is a new splash page for the http://opensolaris.org site

The OpenSolaris.com side has a link to the new OpenSolaris.com site and the OpenSolaris 2008.05 CD image. To quote Glynn Foster, Product Manager for Project Indiana:

OpenSolaris 2008.05 is the first official release in a new binary distribution based on the OpenSolaris operating system. The single Live CD install image allows you to boot up to a desktop environment in seconds, and enjoy it before needing installing it onto a system. The introduction of a new package management system, IPS, allows users to install additional packages from network-based software repositories. The benefits of ZFS as the default root file-sysem provide the best environment to snapshot and rollback your system at any stage, with a best-of-both-worlds inclusion of the GNU utilities like bash(1). In many ways, hell has frozen over, and we’ve fundamentally changed how software is delivered to our users. For the better.

Another way to look at OpenSolaris 2008.05

• Core operating system
• Freely Re-distributable
• New system installer
• Support subscriptions available
• New package management system (IPS)
• Includes DTrace, Containers, ZFS and more

The site has three main areas:

1. get - focused on how to obtain the OpenSolaris software
2. share - a community forum area
3. learn - the knowledge center

Sun has provided details on how to install OpenSolaris in VirtualBox. That will allow you to run 2008.06 as a guest under Windows, Linux or the Mac.

The Sun Third Party System Management Integrations are designed to help customers with complex, heterogeneous environments address common issues of integration, functionality and support.

To better understand the Sun Third Party System Management Integrations initiative, a feature article on the Sun BigAdmin Website has been published and it addresses the following:

• Why Sun is developing third party management integrations
• Third party management programs supported:
  • BMC Patrol Enterprise Manager
  • CA Unicenter Network and Systems Management
  • HP OpenView Operations for UNIX
  • HP OpenView Operations for Windows
  • HP Systems Insight Manager
  • IBM Tivoli Enterprise Console
  • IBM Tivoli Monitoring
  • IBM Tivoli Netcool/OMNIbus
  • Microsoft Operations Manager 2005

• How third party management integrations work
• Where more information is available about them

View the article or PDF version.

So you still think Linux is less expensive than the Solaris Operating System (Solaris OS)? Even for web infrastructure? Well, Sun’s Robin Goldfarb has a few basic points she’d like you to consider:

Basic Linux vs. Solaris

Example #1: A study by Crimson Consulting Group highlights why Solaris OS is actually more cost effective then Linux. When doing a cost analysis, you must compare all costs including acquisition, support, implementation and administration. Solaris OS comes out ahead, and this is even without considering OpenSolaris.

Example #2: UNIX Author Paul Murphy explains why SWaP (Space, Watts and Power) impacts the cost of the Solaris OS.

Example #3: Now consider OpenSolaris vs. Linux

Example #4: With x86 platforms, the Solaris x86 is priced competitively with other choices, like Linux, Windows, etc.

Web Infrastructure

Example #5: “…once you’ve accepted that the costs can be the same or lower than Linux,” Goldfarb writes, “you must also include the benefits of using Solaris over Linux for your web infrastructure.” She lists the following Sun references to demonstrate:

• Why use Solaris 10 for your web infrastructure.
• SAMP and More SAMP
• Sun’s MySQL Acquisition
• Sun Startup Essentials offers deep discounts on hardware, storage and hosting, as well as free software and services for startups.

Music legend and pioneer Neil Young will be joining Sun executives during the JavaOne opening keynote session on May 6 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Young and Sun are expected to make an announcement during the event, and provide a special demonstration of a new multi-media music project.

The keynote session with Neil Young will be available live via webcast at www.sun.com/javaone.

2008 JavaOne Conference General Sessions

Tues. May 6th

• 8:30-10:30am: Opening Day Keynote - Rich Green, executive vice president, Software at Su, will be joined by several special guests, including Young and Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz

• 1:30-3:00pm: Robert Brewin, distinguished engineer and Software CTO at Sun

• 3:20-4:20pm: Jeet Kaul, vice president of Client Software Group at Sun

Wed. May 7th

• 8:30-9:15am: Oracle General Session - Thomas Kurian, senior vice president of development for Oracle Middleware platform products, including Oracle Application Server and development tools

• 5:30-6:15pm: AMD General Session - Leendert vanDoorn, senior AMD fellow

Thurs. May 8th

• 8:30-9:15am: Intel General Session - Douglas W. Fisher, vice president, Software and Solutions Group and general manager, Systems Software Division at Intel Corporation

• 5:30-6:15pm: Motorola General Session - Christy Wyatt, vice president, Software Platforms and Ecosystem at Motorola, Inc.

Fri. May 9th

• 8:30 am - 10:30 am: James Gosling, vice president and Sun fellow

If you are unable to attend the conference in person, Sun will host live webcasts of all the 2008 JavaOne conference General Sessions from the JavaOne website - http://java.sun.com/javaone.

Full details on the General Sessions are available at: http://java.sun.com/javaone/sf/sessions/general/index.jsp. Read the rest of this entry »

http://www.ustream.tv/sun

Sun has been working to position OpenSolaris as a platform for building Open Storage systems. There are 30+ OpenSolaris storage projects with thousands of members.

On April 29th John Fowler hosted an event that more formally announced Sun’s positioning of Open Storage:

Download the latest version of this free, open-source Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for software developers. Release highlights:

• Advance JavaScript Editing Support
• Improved Performance (Up to 40% faster startup)
• Built in Spring Framework Support
• Integrated Support for RESTful Web Service Support
• New MySQL Support in Database Explorer
• Significant Ruby/JRuby Support Enhancements

For more specific information about NetBeans IDE 6.1, see its Release Page, Features List and Tutorials and Documentation.

Learn more about Sun virtualization technologies in a webcast with accompanying slide presentation by Hugo Rivero, senior staff engineer in the Partner group at Sun, who discusses problem issues in the data center and how virtualization can resolve many of today’s challenges.

The general problem facing what is termed the traditional data center is that they have been stocked with many small servers, which are dedicated to a single function (web server, database server, email server, etc.), and are not being utilized to their full capacity. Rivero says in many data center assessments, utilization may be as low at five percent.

To simply define what virtualization is, a single system is used and an illusion is created that there are multiple systems by providing an image up to the applications. There are many different ways to create virtualization - from hard partitions to very light-weight research management control. The main difference is in how flexible these solutions are in terms of assigning the resources and how isolated they are in terms of the applications.

“It is not a one-size fits all,” Rivero says. “People need to pay close attention to what their own individual needs are and based on that make a good decision. Fortunately, there are a lot of solutions within the industry from Sun and other vendors that can address this problem in different ways.”

In this presentation, Rivero breaks down the variations of virtualization into four solution categories:

1) Hard partitions: Implemented mostly in hardware seen in mid-range to high-end SMP servers.

Sun solutions: Dynamic System Domains and Dynamic Domains

2) Virtual machines: Physically run multiple instances of an operating system and different flavors, if desired.

Sun solutions: Logical Domains, VirtualBox, xVM Server

3) OS virtualization: A single version of the OS is run and the OS has some kind of virtualization capabilities.

Sun solutions: Solaris Containers, Solaris Trusted Extensions, Solaris Containers for Linux Applications, Solaris 8 Migration Assistant, now known as Solaris 8 Containers

4) Resource Management: Very light-weight and not considered full virtualization.

Sun solution: Solaris Resource Manager

To find out specifically what these virtualization technologies and solutions do and how they work in varying situations, tune in to the Sun Engineering Webcast Series: Sun Virtualization Technologies. The presentation is a little over 25 minutes.