Sun releases Solaris 8

BANGALORE: Sun Microsystems Inc. has released Solaris 8

Operating Environment. It has also announced free access to the Solaris source

and end-user binary code. The Solaris 8 Operating Environment is available for

both the SPARC and Intel platforms. In addition to the operating system

software, the Solaris Operating Environment uses a comprehensive co-package of

software from Sun, iPlanet e-commerce Solutions, Oracle and others.

According to a release, new features in Solaris 8 software

drive the five critical requirements for Internet-based systems -- scalability,

availability, manageability, security and connectivity -- to new heights. In

addition, Sun guarantees application compatibility with earlier versions of the

Solaris Operating Environment through verification testing, unlike other

operating systems that require major recompiling and recoding.

Some of the features of Solaris 8 are:

• Network Cache Accelerator for a fourfold improvement for serving web
  
  pages.
• IPv6 support for a near-infinite number of IP addresses.
• Java HotSpot technology, a feature for delivering the industry's fastest
  
  Java 2 platform performance.
• A 70 per cent improvement in database performance.
• Integrated iPlanet Directory Server.

While the software and co-packaged code is free, Sun is

charging $75 for the cost of media, which includes the Solaris 8 Operating

Environment in 10 languages, a Solaris Software Companion CD, and co-packaged

software. The Solaris 8 Operating Environment is scheduled to ship in early

March. Customers can get access to Sun's Solaris 8 source code in 90 days from

today, for a $75 media fee, said the release. Program details are available at http://www.sun.com/solaris.