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Mad Hatter Preview - Sun Java Desktop System Demo
bengine writes "According to this article, Sun Java Desktop System is a good product overall, built on the well-established SuSE system with integration from Sun. It delivers what appears to be a very useful desktop OS and it has the chance to make a dent in the Windows monopoly. But Sun will have to differentiate itself on its quality, hardware, services and reputation. That means a lot of hard work, so the key questions will be how well they execute their strategy, how much public acceptance they gain and what message they convey through public venues." This makes a good companion to the earlier story linking to Mad Hatter screenshots.
Why is there a need to preview so many GNOME Desktops under different name ? GNOME is GNOME no matter what company forks it. As soon as GNOME 2.6 comes out SUN, Ximian or Red Hat gonna fork it again for their Desktop. So if you want to know how each new GNOME looks like then please go and look inside the real GNOME and not some lame forks which changes anyways as soon as the core releases a new version.
I finally received the Mad Hatter Preview in the mail this weekend. I couldn't wait to get this demo out and actually test the software, hoping that this would answer some questions that I had about the product. I was somewhat surprised to find a Live CD version of Mad Hatter instead of an actual beta, but that's okay, I could still see what it was, even if I cannot truly install it. The truly nice thing about Live CD's is that they don't require that much space to get the flavor of the system. In other words, you really do not make any significant changes to an existing machine.
The folks at Sun were even nice enough to name the files that are created on your machine in the C: drive (for Windows types) or your Linux / partition. The files can be deleted when you are finished navigating the demo CD, which makes this a handy demo for anyone wanting to show the system to someone without having to carry a computer around to demo the product.
The demo is only available in English, but that is not a real problem for a native speaker. I suppose the foreign markets will see other versions become available when the Java(TM) Desktop System reaches GA. The functionality of the system is somewhat limited because it is a demo, but there are some interesting things that have been added to the GNOME2 based desktop.
The obvious additions include the Star Office 7 Office Suite, Sun Microsystems latest version of Star Office - the product which led to Open Office (actually I think it Was Star Office 5.2 originally). The Open Office Team and the Sun Microsystems developers must be working in Tandem to make their suites more accessible to the public. The only problem I have with the Live CD is that I cannot install the Star Office 7 product to demo it (it takes more space than is allocated for the install in demo mode). Other than this minor annoyance for demo purposes, the system works well.
There are several things that Sun has added into their desktop that are not standard and are third-party add-ons. For one thing, they do install and integrate many of the commercial plugins that most Linux distributions do not install by default. Among them are the Macromedia plugins, several music and audio plugins as well as Real Player plugins. All of these plugins are integrated with Mozilla 1.4 and work out of the box (or in this case, on the Live CD).
These third=party add-ons or add-ins (however you wish to say it) are licensed and those licenses are described within the Third Party License README file. The various license for each piece of the puzzle are there, and given in full, for your reading pleasure. For those of you that thought there might be some license from the SCO Group for whatever they are claiming - they are not mentioned at all (enough said about that sore subject).
The Sun team has done a polished job of integrating their software into the GNOME2 environment, and has made some very nice changes here and there. Some of the third party Java(TM) add-ons are rather "nice to have" if not fully functional on the Live CD. Among these is JDisk Report from JGoodies as licensed from the Karsten Lentzsch and included within the Live CD environment (though not functional there).
The effect of that product was viral, I did go out and download JDisk Report 1.1.1 for myself (it is Freeware) for my own disk analysis on my machines. It is a rather nice thing to have.
The desktop is nothing unfamiliar to anyone who has ever used a Linux system before, and I don't see it as a giant hurdle for anyone who is used to a Windows environment. Heck, if my wife can pick up a Linux box running with GNOME2 and not have a problem, I suppose anyone can. My wife has never considered herself a computer whiz, but she did appreciate the fact that Linux doesn't crash and for the most part is just a "pick up and go" OS that remains available. The only downtime we experienced this year has been due to outside factors. We have lost our cable several times due to the virus outbreaks that really slammed
This is clever, and it's nice to see that it works, but Java? Most people's experience with Java is waiting forever for some applet to load on a web page only to discover it tells them what time it is. I can't see how they're going to convince Joe Average that this is somehow a competitive advantage, no matter how smoothly integrated the entire package is.
It was previewed on an x86 computer...
When I read the article for the first time I thought it was an OS that most of its apps are Java or something, but it turned out to be a Linux distro, with the most common Linux apps (GNOME, Mozilla, Evolution)
Anyway, it still looks like a good choice for desktops, I think I'll try to test it as soon as it's available.
The IT section color scheme sucks.
The author states The Open Office Team and the Sun Microsystems developers must be working in Tandem to make their suites more accessible to the public. but from the Open Office website:
StarDivision, the original author of the StarOffice suite of software, was founded in Germany in the mid-1980s. It was acquired by Sun Microsystems during the summer of 1999 and StarOffice 5.2 was released in June of 2000. Future versions of StarOffice software, beginning with 6.0, have been built using the OpenOffice.org source, APIs, file formats, and reference implementation.
Anyone got any paper towels?
/me sees a McBride Press Realese in the near future...
I'm not a prophet or a stone-age man,
I'm just a mortal with potential of a super man.
I find the name "SUN Java Desktop" really ridiculous. Its as stupid as calling Toyota Land Cruiser "SONY SUV" for the Sony sterio system used in it.
http://www.nasirudheen.blogspot/
on the subject, there's a great article over at InternetWeek.com by David Strom, entitled Java On The Desktop: An Idea Whose Time Has Come ... And Gone.
Basically: Sun should give up trying to win the desktop wars; if they want a good, non-MS desktop, they should back OS X and focus on the stuff that they've always done well. This is just a diversion for Sun, it's going to sap their resources and when it doesn't work it's just going to be another feather in the cap for the "Sun is dying" camp.
-- james
I believe Sun is using the Java naming because so many components are Java already, or will hopefully become Java-based in the future. For example, OpenOffice has a lot of components written in Java with tremendously tight Java integration. The SDK lets you do some really cool things. I used OpenOffice in server mode to automatically convert word, ppt, and excel docs submitted to a MySQL database into PDF. That way, they can be accessed from anywhere, and they are full-text searchable in the MySQL database, in addition to offering a really nice "preview" function. Also, Mozilla has many many parts of it written in Java.
When you have a brand name that actually means something to the public, and you try to perform a "line extension" by applying that brand name to more or less unrelated products that do not share the characteristics with which the brand is associated, you don't enhance the value of the brand, you diminish it.
.net and apply it to some inchaote mass of technology.
Diet Coke, Cherry Coke, Vanilla Coke, by all means, but there's a good reason why Coca-Cola Corporation calls their orange juice "Minute Maid" and not "Orange Coke."
Sun's calling everything "Java" is almost as bad as Microsoft trying to appropriate the top-level-domain
Calling everything Sun does "Java" may please the ego of whatever manager is empowered to stick the name "Java" on stuff, but it won't do Sun, or Sun's customers, or the Java "brand" any good.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
a) Major non-trivial application: Check. (Educational software for text exploration composed of two pieces, an almost full-fledged editor and an "investigator", interface fully graphical, localized for five different languages)
b) Write once, run anywhere: Check (Covers the three major platforms - Windows, Linux and OSX. Ok, write once, compile and run anywhere - the sole major problem was with text format in OSX)
The inconsistencies you point are development process, not tool, problems. Testing does not go away because you use Java. Our software does have minor inconsistencies across platforms, and some (20 or so) lines of code that will execute only in a given operating systems - I would call this cross-platform. The performance is also a non-problem after some targeted tunning.
So, from personal experience, I can say Java is now a viable desktop developement platform.
It's still WAY better than Microsoft's offer: US$ 199 for OS and US$ 499 for Office suite.
I know, it's list price, and corporations will get discounts. But let's compare apple with apple, ok.
So corporations will get deep discounts from Sun, there's no doubt about it. When you're buying in bulk, you'll enjoy deep discount - as simple as that.
Is there any reason people keep mimicing the same old desktop? The same old office applications? Is anyone out there trying to break the mold (I give Apple credit for doing this to a greater degree than others)? I mean, I still see Win98 and above emulation here (not emulation like that...emulation as in, "the child emulates his parents actions"), why not work on something a bit more revolutionary?
Of course here I am nit-picking, and don't really have anything helpful to add...
Carry On.
- Sighuh?
It's Wednesday, isn't sun Bad on Wed? Or maybe that was Amazon.... or Verisign? I'm so confused.
Go away, or I will replace you with a very small shell script.
As well as having a full Linux distribution for Intel based kit. Buhbye CDE.
Architected correctly, the TCO for this Solaris or Linux will be low. Architected incorrectly you might as well not bother.
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
Not to start a flame war, as both desktops have merits, but I still think that in a business KDE Is more interface consistent and 'business looking'. Plus its got a useable integrated office suite.. not a 3rd party add-on..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
See sun package linux.
See sun sell package + support.
See thousands of IT managers now say "oh yeah, _NOW_ I'll make the switch!"
Riiiight.
Linux still has the same issues...one of the biggest is...it's not windows! (oh, and the mouse movement is still not quite right..) All those MS Office licences that were negotiated, all those Seiko label printers the secretaries love and probably won't work (and if they do it'll be a pain), all the pirated copies of X-Treme Beach Volleyball that won't run, all the techs who will have to be retra[[[[tired and new ones with linux experience found...
Let's face it. The linux faithful on slashdot are all nodding their heads saying "it could work..!" The suits who run the numbers, the IT managers who make the decisions...heck, even the techs on the floor are shaking their heads.
Could it happen? Yes. Will it happen. No. Not for technical reasons (I think we'd all agree that it's very technically feasible) but for people reasons.
Yeah. I've always found that the Window Maker way - getting the program menu by right-clicking desktop wherever you like - is the best. In fact, I installed LiteStep on Win98 just for that. (I don't care if alternative shells in Windows are only 99.9% convenient - I want my start menu placed where God intended...)
Another thing which I found pretty neat was the Indigo Magic Desktop's "Icon Catalog" application - small groups of icons arranged in a small window, with a tab row on the bottom for categories. Hopefully 5dwm will get along to reimplement it eventually =)