Sun's W2100z Dual Opteron Workstation

Sun Java Desktop System 2.0, SuSE Linux

By default, our w2100z does not come with any operating system. The Sun Java Desktop System would be the logical desktop for most to run on a Sun hardware platform. JDS is not exactly an operating system, but actually an alternative X desktop/environment to KDE or Gnome. You can check out more information about JDS here.

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Some JDS 2.0 applications are fairly dated, but that doesn't particularly mean that JDS is any less powerful. JDS revolves around Sun's StarOffice 7 suite on top of a modified GNOME desktop. RealPlayer, VNC, GAIM, Mozilla and Evolution are also integrated into JDS as well.

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The similarities between the SuSE desktop and the JDS are very prevalent. We see the same YAST software manager and YOU online update - the only difference between YOU updates from a Sun repository instead of a SuSE one.

Sun also bundled the Looking Glass Project with our JDS desktop. Although just barely useable at this point, Looking Glass aims to be one of the first "true" 3-Dimensional desktops. Looking Glass feels a lot like the MacOS X desktop, allowing us to page through applications via a graphical list of icons in the middle of the screen. Of course, being Sun, there is a heavy dependence on Java and the only real applications that give us any additional features in Looking Glass are Java based. We will look more into Looking Glass as it evolves, but in the meantime, feel free to download the demos of the desktop from Sun's project page and the Java.net development page.

JDS's competitive edge over some other distributions mostly lays in its design, Sun designed JDS as an enterprise operating system and thus, workstation stability is paramount. Falling under Sun's corporate support wing is a plus, and the pricing certainly isn't bad either. JDS's nearest competitor, Ximian XD2, offers the OpenOffice suite instead of StarOffice, but costs $100 for full support.

JDS is still in its infancy. The fact that JDS does not support 64-bit Linux operation is disappointing, but it is not its downfall. In fact, for those who want a quick, simple desktop designed around StarOffice 7 (which usually costs $80 by itself), JDS is a very neat solution. Getting Sun's tech support resources for $50/year is a great deal for many users, but it comes free with our w2100z.