Closing on Oracle's acquisition of Sun has been extended as the European Commission decided to investigate the takeover's possible effect on the database market.

Sun's fiscal fourth quarter earnings were released, while IDC reported on the second quarter's worldwide server sales.

Sun Java System Web Server users may want to pick up the recently published "Sun Web Server: The Essential Guide."

An introduction to developing and deploying Ruby on Rails applications with GlassFish is available. There is also various tips and techniques on the Sun GlassFish WebStack.

Further, read a a best practices guide on managing virtual environments, a case study for provisioning MySQL Enterprise Server using Sun xVM Ops Center, and a proof-of-concept environment demonstrating full free air cooling technique.

Release 2 of the Oracle Database 11g is now accessible. Benchmark interpretations and best practices of Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition on Sun solutions are offered.

If virtualization, cloud computing and security are of interest, tune in to a podcast on Immutable Service Containers.

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Exadata 2 - the first database machine for online transactions processing with Sun FlashFire technology is the first joint product from Sun and Oracle since the acquisition process got underway.

Sun employees are preserving Sun's story in a tribute to the company's past 27 years.

Oracle reported a rise in profits despite a drop in sales for its first fiscal quarter of 2010.

See Virtualization News Bites for information on VirtualBox 3.0.6; managing desktops with VirtualBox, Sun VDI, and Sun Ray thin clients; using roles in Sun xVM Ops Center; VirtualBox Rollback; plus much more.

MySQL connector for OpenOffice.org 1.0 eases installation and offers a seamless integration between the two open source softwares. Another new tool is the Sun Grid Engine Inspect for viewing current and historical data on SGE cluster(s) and the Service Domain Manager.

For tips and techniques: find out how to use ZFS to leverage SSD as a MySQL cache; use VMware on Sun with a quick start guide; why JavaFX and JavaFX 1.2 APIs are ideal for mobile applications; using OAuth to cover security issues for a REST application.

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Anyone interested in the Sun-Oracle merger should take an hour and a half to watch the replay of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison's interview with Ed Zander.

Newly released: Sun Ops Center 2.5 and Sun Java Communications Suite 7.

The next generation of Intel Xeon processors, also known as Nehalem-EX, are discussed in a Sun white paper. Other papers and articles covered:

• Sun Storage 7000 Unified Storage Systems: Architected for Open, Simple, and Scalable Enterprise Storage
• Reducing Costs by Improving Server Performance
• Microsoft Windows Integration on the Sun Storage 7000 Unified Storage System

Two features of the Sun Storage 7000 2009.Q3 Release - COMSTAR and Synchronous write bias property - are detailed.

Sun Nehalem servers get good marks from ZDNet Asia and eWeek in recent reviews.

Sun StorageTek Library Attach Software for Windows expands the manageability of ACS Library Software (ACSLS) to Windows-based clients.

Read information on the Sun Datacenter InfiniBand Switch 36 and get Andy Bechtolsheim's view on the rise of 10GbE.

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Sun customers are given answers on what Oracle plans to do with some of its soon-to-be acquired technologies in a recently published ad. The two companies have already posted a world-record benchmark with Sun Fire X4270 and Oracle 10g, and promise more to come at the Oracle OpenWorld 2009.

MySQL, Java, NetBeans, VirtualBox, and OpenOffice.org are named in InfoWorld's 2009 Best of Open Source Software Awards (Bossies). A list of FOSS must-haves for Windows also has been published.

Get information on the MySQL Enterprise Fall 2009 Release. Another new release is Drupal with AMP Stack AMI on Hardened OpenSolaris 2008.11 AMI.

JavaFX TV platform has been chosen by Amino Communications to be used in its next generation IPTV set-top boxes. Find out how JavaFX makes things easier for developers from WidgetFX creator Stephen Chin.

Learn more about LDAP Client APIs and the various subtypes of server virtualization and enterprise-class server virtualization offerings.

How-to guide on ZFS Snapshots is linked, as is a DLight screencast.

Sun Fire X4275 Server has received generous praise from ITPro.

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Future plans for Sun were revealed this week in an interview with Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Additionally, The Register reported on a Sun generated roadmap for the SPARC processors that was purportedly produced in June for some of Sun's largest customers.

Key technology enhancements to the Sun Unified Storage systems portfolio were officially announced.

A 29-page Oracle white paper provides a technical overview of the Exadata Product Family. Sun released information on the Sun Flash Accelerator F20 PCIe Card.

Learn more about various Sun technologies including:

• managing application memory on Solaris and resolving common memory usage problems
• configuring LDom guest domains as Solaris cluster nodes
• migrating to Role Based Access Control (RBAC)
• G1: Java's Garbage First Garbage Collector
• how to use NetBeans to combine JAR files into one

Sun white papers of interest cover the benefits of open standards and open source in cloud computing as well as the business benefits of virtualizing IT infrastructure, and migrating from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice.org or StarOffice 9.

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