Sun to make Solaris more friendly

 

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By Reuters

Posted on 9 Jul 2007 at 08:26

Sun Microsystems is revamping its Solaris operating system, incorporating key pieces of rival Linux software in a move that could gain better support from developers who have massed behind Linux.

Solaris is one of the main varieties of the Unix family of operating systems, known for their ability to safely and securely handle major computing tasks rather than for ease of use.

Sun itself is known for its business computers that can handle major corporate loads and it has long courted programmers who cooperatively develop Linux and other so-called open-source software, with mixed success.

The revamped Solaris system will have features borrowed from Linux that could make it easier to use. "This is a big deal to the extent that it lowers the barrier for adoption of Solaris," says IDC software analyst Al Gillen.

Final details of the new project - dubbed Indiana - will be revealed later this week, but it will keep the Solaris kernel. "Solaris is hard to set up. It doesn't have good hardware support," says Ladislav Bodnar, founder of Distrowatch.com, a website that reviews open-source software. "The hope is that things may change."

"Everything that the Linux developer likes to have at their fingertips, I think they would like to have for Solaris," agrees George Weiss, an analyst with Gartner who follows open-source software.

Sun executives declined to comment in advance of a formal unveiling of the plans.