Sun launches Java desktop

By Matt Whipp

Posted on 18 Sep 2003 at 16:16

Sun has unveiled its desktop platform, the Sun Java Desktop System, formerly known as Project Mad Hatter. Except that the only mad thing about seems it has little to do with Java.

The Java Desktop system is built on SuSE's distro of Linux, with office apps from Star Office 7, Mozilla's browser and Ximian's Evolution calendaring and PIM apps suite among the host of open-source programs provided. Oh, and the Java Runtime Environment.

In fairness, Sun's product man Terry Smith told us that in this particular instance, it's more an extension of the brand it is using across the whole of its newly launched product suite rather than a description of the underlying technology.

Smith said that while Sun indemnifies its customers against the kind of litigious threats currently mounted by SCO for all the product's above SuSE's platform, it couldn't do the same for the Linux distro. However, he added that early next year will see the Java Desktop System available on Sun's own Solaris system.

Above the platform, the most interesting application is the latest version of Star Office, now in its seventh incarnation. The main new features, we were told, is even more document conversion compatibility. In fact Smith said that Star Office 7 has more support for versions of Microsoft's Office documents than Office itself.

It clearly has been refined to give the familarity of Microsoft Office, although Smith would only compare it to 'another popular office product', and has also ironed out font issues so that what is printed out is exactly the same format and layout as is displayed on screen.

There is also more language support, new options to export straight to PDF and improved HTML support.

Licences cost $50 per user per year (if you buy it on top of the Enterprise System) or $100 standalone. If you have a Microsoft licence, then Sun will only charge you $50 for switching.

Sun's licensing means you can buy once, use anywhere. The licence covers you for installing the system both at work and at home, for example.

This is Sun's take on what it sees as an answer to ever more global, flexible and mobile companies. Equipped with Sun's Sun Ray software the desktop will be reduced pretty much to a dumb terminal, and swiping your Java Card on a computer will authenticate you to your company's network to access the applications you need, while always giving you the same experience, no matter where in the world you happen to be.