Sun's W2100z Dual Opteron Workstation
by Kristopher Kubicki on October 27, 2004 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Systems
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.
Click to enlarge.
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.
Click to enlarge.
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.
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najames - Friday, October 29, 2004 - link
I use a Sunfire V440 daily at work. It is a 4cpu large entry level server seen here.http://store.sun.com/CMTemplate/CEServlet?process=...
I program daily on mainframe, Solaris, and PC. Benchmark programs I wrote took 38cpu seconds on the mainframe, 38cpu seconds on my PIII pc, 17cpu seconds on Solaris. Four programs submitted at once on the the mainframe took 38cpu seconds but wall time was hours, the PC choked, the Solaris server still did them in 17cpu seconds each in about the same wall time. The Solaris server didn't slow down, period. We have combined large programs that individualy would sometimes crash on the mainframe and the Solaris Unix server burns through them even with temp space going over 12gigs druing processing.
If the Sun Opteron server is anything like my little Sunny, they sould do very well.
Reflex - Friday, October 29, 2004 - link
*laff* Something tells me thats not the case.My curiosity is just that since these are obviously relabels, I am wondering who the original manufacturer is as the hardware is excellent and it might be nice to be able to acquire these for white box systems.
morespace - Friday, October 29, 2004 - link
Egad. You're absolutely correct. I didn't notice the daughterboard arrangement in that picture at first. It looks flat. But looking more closely at the placement of chips and capacitors on those motherboards, it's more than a family resemblance - they appear identical!I sense a conspiracy.
The hard drive enclosures appear different for what it's worth. Who makes these really? Apple?
Reflex - Friday, October 29, 2004 - link
I take that back, that is the same as the one I have on my bench, however their cabling is a bit more messy.Look closely. Anandtech did not show a straight out picture from the same angle, but thats the same motherboard in more or less the same chassis with a few modifications. The CPU, chipset, Adaptec chip, PCI and AGP slots are all in the same places on that board, both use the daughtercard method for the CPU, etc.
Thats why I am asking who actually makes that board and case, someone is preconfiguring the servers and Sun/IBM are labelling and reselling them.
Reflex - Friday, October 29, 2004 - link
That is not the same Intellistation that I have on my lab bench. I'll look up the model number when I go back in, but seeing as its friday night that won't be till monday.morespace - Friday, October 29, 2004 - link
Reflex, what are you on about? Here's a picture of the insides of an IBM Intellistation A Pro:http://www.digitalcad.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp...
Tell me, how does this look like a w2100z?
Nsofang - Friday, October 29, 2004 - link
Zealots on both sides always mess up any discussion. This is a review about the Sun WORKSTATION, yet punks bring in supercomputer arguments. WTF!! is wrong with you guys! If anything bring in arguments/discussions about comparable hardware G5's/Itaniums/NEC/SGI, something that adds to the discussion, not subtract.slashbinslashbash - Thursday, October 28, 2004 - link
#33: You're right, for "general purpose computing" FLOPS is a pretty bad measure, but you've just changed your argument. For "high-end workstations" (what this argument is supposedly about) FLOPS can be *very* relevant, depending on the application.#34: I meant "nothing special" in terms of how supercomputing clusters are normally hooked up. Just a few years ago, Gigabit Ethernet cards cost $200, and their most prominent application was in supercomputing clusters.
Reflex - Thursday, October 28, 2004 - link
#37: Yeah, I know, I was in a mood yesterday or I wouldn't have let him get me into it. ;)And you just made the point I was trying to make. While price can be an issue in the corporate space, its only the deciding factor when all other factors are equal. I was not even trying to get into a Mac vs. PC debate, this really has nothing to do with Mac's.
I do want to know who is building these workstations though, because its not Sun despite the label.
bob661 - Thursday, October 28, 2004 - link
Reflex,He's trying to pull you off the subject. Supercomputers are irrelevant in this discussion. The thread is about workstations. Sun markets workstations. Apple does not. I know our company doesn't care about a couple hundred or even a couple thousand dollar difference if the service is impeccable and the workstation performs the task without headaches.