Making the News this week is the teaming of Sun, Google and Microsoft to support an Internet research laboratory [15621]; the new Storage Performance Council SPC-2 Benchmark [15608]; Sun's role in building a disaster warning system [15615]; Sun Microsystems Malaysia's continued prosperity [15530] and a Sun FireTM x64 servers contest [15557].
Sun Chairman and CEO Scott McNealy talks about Sun's prospects [15565] in the Features section that also includes an analysis of Sun's open source effort [15610]; the company's open-source marketing strategy [15585]; and James Gosling's take on the future of the JavaTM programming language [15575].
The upcoming SolarisTM 10 1/06 Operating System (Solaris OS) [15602] headlines the Software section. Also included is information on the Sun JavaTM System Portal Server 7 [15625], SunTM Management Center 3.6 [15578] and N1TM System Manager 1.2 [15603].
The Sun and Standards section addresses the continuing discussion with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on open standards [15604].
In JavaTM Technology, read about Open Java DB's incorporation into the Sun JavaTM Enterprise System [15609], resolution of security vulnerabilities in the JavaTM Runtime Environment [15526], Java's overtaking of C++ in SourceForge projects [15562] and the release of three recent publications on Java [15581], [15528], [15454].
Articles in the FOSS section reveal the impact of the SolarisTM source code release [15564], the secret of open source projects [15534], the debate to move to open source [15586], a review of MozillaTM Firefox 1.5 [15579], and a new guide on managing FOSS software projects [15577].
Sun, Google and Microsoft have joined in supporting a US$7.5 million Internet research laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. The Reliable, Adaptive and Distributed Systems, or RAD, lab was scheduled to open December 15, and is aimed at helping entrepreneurs introduce more groundbreaking ideas to a mass audience, reported the Associated Press (AP).
The Storage Performance Council (SPC) SPC-2 benchmark specification has gained new support with Seagate Technology announcing its backing of this benchmark specification designed to measure and report sequential I/O (bandwidth) performance data. SPC-2 is expected to become the industry-standard for measuring storage products in sequential I/O environments.
Sun will be working with the Hawaii-based Pacific Disaster Center (PDC) to develop and deploy Disaster Warning Systems for countries around the globe. Sun technologies and engineering services will help support PDC's vision of fostering disaster-resistant communities through information, science and technology.
Managing Director for Sun Microsystems Malaysia Cheam Tat Inn says he expects the company's growth to continue its upward climb and anticipates beating the industry's growth numbers during this fiscal year ending June 30, 2006, similar to last year, which grew over two-and-a-half times more than the standard industry rate.
If you love Sun Fire x64 servers, let Sun know why and you may be eligible to win a free Apple iPod. Four themes have been outlined and Sun will pick the top five entries within each for a total of 20 winners, who will be awarded an Apple iPod Nano.
Each week, we determine which articles have been most frequently referenced by logged-in subscribers to provide you with a list of the most popular articles for each of the last three issues. The Web version of this article lists the top 10 articles for each of the last three issues. The top articles for the three most recent issues were:
94.1: Key Differences Between Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 Servers
93.5: Sun Fire T2000 Server with CoolThreads Technology
93.4: New Solaris 10 Patch Policy to Begin November 29th
Eventually everyone gets a chance to ask Scott McNealy about how Sun plans to make money giving away software. Peter Burrows of BusinessWeek just quizzed the Sun CEO and chairman, who responded that more was involved than the old "we'll make it up on volume" argument.
Timothy Prickett Morgan's cogent, thought-provoking analysis of Sun's Solaris Enterprise System and what it may owe to IBM's experience with the AS/400 is well worth a reader's time. The article, written for IT Jungle, suggests IBM should be more than a little nervous about the possible success Sun may enjoy with its current open-source marketing strategy.
It's not just developers that Sun is targeting in its open-source initiative, John Loiacono told Computerworld's Patrick Thibodeau. The Sun executive vice president for software products explained that Sun is also seeking the involvement of architects and systems administrators as well.
Speaking recently at the Sun Tech Days Worldwide Developer Conference in Toronto, James Gosling, CTO of the Java Enterprise and Development Group at Sun, urged the audience to involve themselves with the Java Community Process (JCP), which he believes is at the heart of the future for the Java programming language.
The next update for the Solaris 10 Operating System (Solaris OS) has a revenue release date for its download set for December 21, 2005, with general availability and its media kits scheduled for release January 23, 2006, Sun announced December 6.
A new version of the Sun Java System Portal Server will provide developers and customers with a secure method of delivering collaborative and identity-based content through web-based applications. The Java System Portal Server 7 is available for download at no cost within the Sun Java Enterprise System, Solaris Enterprise System and Sun Java Application Platform Suite.
The Sun Management Center 3.6 released December 8, enhances application availability, optimizes performance and scalability and simplifies the monitoring and management of SPARC and x86-based systems running the Solaris Operating System, Linux systems and applications. With the Sun Management Center, system administrators are able to control the Sun infrastructure from virtually anywhere on the network or on the web.
During Sun Network Computing 2005 Q4, Sun announced the release of the N1 System Manager version 1.2 software that supports the company's newest Sun Fire servers, including the Sun Fire X2100, Sun Fire T1000 and Sun Fire T2000. N1 System Manager is designed to help manage each step of the infrastructure lifecycle.
One clear measure of the success Sun hoped for in its release of Solaris Operating System (Solaris OS) source code is the registration of 10,000 people at the OpenSolaris Web site and the creation of more than 24 OpenSolaris user groups since the release in June 2005. This and other evidence suggest that Sun's decision was astute.
Prompted perhaps by the comments of Sun's Erwin Tenhumberg and the Mozilla Foundation's Tristan Nitot at last month's OASIS conference in London, Ingrid Marson studied the question of why open source projects get so little publicity. Her two-part article for ZDNet UK also considers why not publicizing a migration to open source might just be a good idea.
Forrester Research conducted a survey on open-source software use among 128 large North American organizations in early 2005 that produced some interesting results in terms of the reasons for adopting, or not adopting, open-source software. Mark Long comments on these results in NewsFactor Magazine Online.
The recently released Mozilla Firefox 1.5 draws qualified praise from Jim Rapoza, who reports on the tests conducted on the solution in the labs of eWeek. Rapoza characterizes the version, not as a "major new release," but rather as an improvement over the earlier version.
Those developers whose view of free and open source software has been jaundiced by the failure of some past FOSS projects will be heartened by Karl Fogel's new book, "How to Run a Successful Free Software Project," new from O'Reilly, which details the various aspects of software projects with an aim to ensuring their success.
The Sun supported distribution of the Apache Derby Project open Java DB has been incorporated into the Sun Java Enterprise System and will be included soon in the NetBeans IDE 5.0 with a new plug-in, Sun announced. The fourth release of the Java Enterprise System now uses the open Java DB.
Recent security bugs in the Java runtime environment (JRE) have been fixed by Sun, according to an article by Joris Evers with CNET News.com. Reported as "highly critical" flaws by Secunia, these flaws exposed computers running Windows, Linux and Solaris Operating System (Solaris OS) to hacker attack.
The SourceForge Web site announced the Java programming language overtook C++ in the number of projects on the repository of open-source projects site, becoming the dominant language for the first time. As of December 1, the Java programming language surpassed C++ with 16,738 projects versus 16,731 for C++, reported Darryl K. Taft with eWeek.
Java security architects Christopher Steel, Ramesh Nagappan and Ray Lai have written a hands-on practitioner's guide to building robust end-to-end security into Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) enterprise applications, web services, identity management, service provisioning and personal identification solutions.
Revised and updated for the new Java Platform, Enterprise Edition version 1.4, "Java Enterprise in a Nutshell, Third Edition" was released in November with insight into this latest Sun software. Written by Jim Farley and William Crawford with contributions from Prakash Malani, John Norman and Justin Gehtland, this practical guide is ideal for enterprise Java developers.
Publisher No Starch Press has released "Wicked Cool Java: Code Bits, Open Source Libraries, and Project Ideas," which is intended to help developers, system architects and even advanced hobbyists leverage their existing knowledge in order to get the most out of the Java programming language.
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