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The Return Of Solaris 9 For x86
The Pi-Guy writes: "Hoping that I won't screw up again about Solaris 9 on x86 again, this time I'm sure I got it right... eWeek is covering that indeed, Sun will be shipping Solaris 9 for x86 after all!!! Also in that article, they note that Sun is shipping a x86 based server, which will ship the 26th. It will be running a Sun Linux distro... Many surprises from Sun today!!"
Apparently, Solaris for x86 is not going to be GA like Solaris for SPARC is.
It appears to only be available as a shipping option on the x86-based LX-class servers...
Cheers,
Ken
Because Solaris is too "heavy" for the smaller hardware (think desktops) and Linux is too "light" for the big hardware (think E10K+) Solaris has a huge tool-set for hotswapping, clustering, etc.
Who is John Galt?
Sun Microsystems announced the Sun LX50 today at LinuxWorld. They also are again shipping Solaris 8 for x86, the cost is $45 for the CD or $20 to download the CD image. They have not yet released Solaris 9 for x86 for general availability, as far as I can tell.
The LX50 is intended for edge computing. For example as a web or proxy server. It runs "Sun Linux 5.0", although I can't find out much about what that distro is. It appears to be based on the UltraLinux distro.
Since Solaris 8 for x86 was one of the fastest and most stable UNIX releases for Intel platforms I would venture to guess that the 9 release will be also. The usual problem will be the lack of ISV applications for the product. Although numerous open source packages will be available, making it a great web server or email server.
In my universe I'm perfectly normal, it's not my fault you don't live in my universe.
I'm hearing it will cost around $20 to download and $45 for the media kit. Hopefully when they make their announcements the price will stick. So far prior versions have been released around those prices.
Heck, you can still download Solaris 8 2/02 for $20 (x86 and Sparc) though I'm waiting for version 9 personally.
Has Comcast disconnected your Internet account? Same here. You can read about it at http://comcastissue.blogspot.com
Don't get excited yet, According to Infoworld the new Solaris x86 will only run on Sun hardware such as the Sun LX50. You won't be able to download it for free and use it on any system as in the past.
They are only doing this for the admins who want cheap Solaris hardware to mix in with their SPARC stuff. No more free lunches.
Don't forget (Free|Open|Net)BSD! These have a genuine UNIX heritage.
Healthcare article at Kuro5hin
Plus you have the giant eletric penguins with tenticles that you have to watch out for when you're in the Sahara... plenty of sun there.
--
Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
No, Gateway didn't buy Cobalt -- they just sold relabeled Cobalt equipment for a time. Sun bought Cobalt quite a while ago, although there wasn't a whole lot of fanfare around the purchase itself.
And, frankly, the Sun Linux distribution isn't really a distribution at all. According to Sun, it's only available (now) on the LX50, which is pretty much par for the course for the old Cobalt equipment. What _is_ new about the LX50 is that it's built to be a general purpose server platform as opposed to a Web server (Cobalt's mainstay product lines -- the RaQ series).
I know there are a bunch of people out there that think that Sun has a motive for releasing their own distribution. I've even seen a few people claim that they might be doing this to stratify the Linux marketplace. I don't buy it. Cobalt has been shipping their units with a "distribution" called Cobalt Linux for years -- and from what I know of the LX50, it's pretty much the same thing.
Interestingly, back then, Cobalt Linux was basically a hybrid Redhat distribution. I expect that Sun Linux is exactly the same thing -- the next permutation of Cobalt Linux.
As it is, I've stopped being all that interested in the Cobalt platforms after they have wholesale _stopped_ putting out Security fixes for their older platforms. I have a poor, dejected Cobalt Qube that I don't even use anymore because the software on it is so full of holes that it would be suicide to use it as a server. The last updates to the unit were posted by Sun in 2000.
That being said, now that Sun has its nameplate on the front of the unit and its moniker on the issue.net, maybe they'll be more proficient about updates.
What are the real differences between Linux and Solaris as server OSes?
Solaris has:
- extreme CPU, disk, and peripheral scalability
- mature 64-bit support
- multiple scheduling and VM algorithms
- fine-grained patch management
- Dynamic Reconfiguration (allows partially-broken servers to continue running)
- easy hot-swapping
- Dynamic System Domains (multiple OS images)
- multipathing for networks and disks
- bundled management software (SMC, Disksuite, etc.)
- fairly easy installation (similar to Red Hat's install but much more robust)
- JumpStart automatic installation
- sccs (minor detail, but I like it)
- really good bundled documentation (enough to get a sysadmin cert. using it)
And I'm sure there are many more. One thing that is frustrating sometimes is that the Solaris vs. Linux vs. Windows arguments lose many of these details. Most people mindlessly regurgitate benchmarks or marketing-speak trying to justify their basically-religious feelings when an objective analysis would pose a much different argument.
Healthcare article at Kuro5hin