Sun and Linux; Together Again, for the 1st Time!

[theplustwo]

Recently I have become privy to some special top secret information pertaining to Sun Microsystems and their pending foray into the world of desktop Linux which we all know and love.

Sun is currently working on a pruduct codenamed Mad Hatter to be released in 2003. It is a consumer Linux distrobution featuring a windows like GUI, the ability to network with windows machines, and comes bundled with Sun's Appserver and Database.

Some of the more unique features the new Sun Linux (tentative title) will feature are the ability to run on legacy hardware, it was demoed running on a pentium II 266mhz machine!.

Also, the new distrobution will be able to network two computers together into one big desktop and reversly, will support multiple monitors, for the ability to run two separate desktops from one box.

Expect the final product to be a highly-polished Windows Alternative. Also, Sun's Star Office will be included.

As a final note, one sun representative can be quoted as saying "To deny the fact that Linux will eventually take over the Intel Desktop Market would be to deny gravity."

More news as it develops.

[Joshua Milton N]

Dude that sounds pretty cool since it is Top Secret Information.:) :)

[theplustwo]

Yes, but I have been sworn to secrecy by the source of this Top Secret Information so don't ask me where it is from. :sweat:

[Joshua Milton N]

Ok man I won't ask you where you got it from at all.

I promise.

[War Lord]

What gets me is how linux people claim linux is better than windows, and blah blah..
And sun is gonna make a linux os disto, that is really close to windows.
Wouldn't you wanna try make a distro that's not like windows but superior?

Linux is good for a server, but sucks for a workstation and I would never use it as such. Windows, especially XP is toop efficient for such a thing.

[theplustwo]

The fact that they are making it isn't really the part I am exited about, the fact that they now see the market as a viable place to try to take over, and that windows is beatable, is what I like. While windows still makes more sense to most people (better driver support, etc) it is, and you can't deny this, bloated, and annoying. I have purchased every version of consumer-oriented windows as it came out, but I have never really been satisfied. I admit XP is finally pretty good, but its stability and speed are what microsoft should have started with.

I probably actually wont get Sun Linux, I just hope that as more big players like sun get into the mix, companies will be forced to offer more and better drivers for their hardware, as well as Linux software. The product Sun is making may not turn out to be that important in itself, but I think it represents a shift in the way other companies will look at the OS world. Also, I think it is going to be mostly targeted at corporate drones, since its based on networking and application serving, but we shall see.

[War Lord]

I don't find XP bloated or annoying at all.
I find it fast and efficient.

[theplustwo]

Well, the thing is, you have to customize the hell out of it. Uninstalling messenger is pretty much impossible, but at least you can disable it with the group policy editor. But it comes with MSN explorer and all that sort of shit, which annoys me. It is the best desktop OS out there right now, however.

[Teilyr]

Um.. How can they be together again, if it's for the first time? Try reading what you type.

[vegeta1215]

Most of the stuff that new Sun distro says it's gonna do can already be done with current Linux distributions, like the window-like UI, windows network, running on legacy hardware (well, a pentium 2 can hardly be called legacy since it's based on x86 architecture, which is also what pentium 4's of today are based on).

If anything, it sounds like Sun is starting to step out of the proprietary Unix world and create a disro that is more flexible, has the pwoer of Linux, and integrated with their products.


Originally posted by War Lord
What gets me is how linux people claim linux is better than windows, and blah blah..
And sun is gonna make a linux os disto, that is really close to windows.
Wouldn't you wanna try make a distro that's not like windows but superior?

Linux is good for a server, but sucks for a workstation and I would never use it as such. Windows, especially XP is toop efficient for such a thing.

I don't really think there's such thing as "better". What's best is what's best for each individual person. Linux has it's advantages, and so does Windows (both of which I won't list), it's all personal preference.

When they say "windows-like system", I think they are referring specifically to the UI. People are familiar with the Windows UI, so why fix something if it isn't broke? Besides, user interfaces are independent of OSs.

I'm sorry I have to disagree with you about using Linux as a desktop. If it weren't possible, I wouldn't still be using it after 8 months.