Announcing OpenSolaris 2008.11

Today, Sun announces the general availability of the most exciting release of Solaris since the original Solaris 10 — OpenSolaris 2008.11.

This release builds on the success of 2008.5, which is being used by enormous numbers of developers. That release was specifically oriented to developers, incorporating the latest free open source technologies and our own innovations. The 2008.11 product we are announcing today takes the developer capability and raises it to a new level – with innovations for the developer, the deployer, and the systems administrator. For the first time, you can get one open operating environment with both the latest technologies and the ability to deploy into mission-critical production.

People developing and deploying with Solaris today enjoy core capabilities like ZFS and DTrace to radically simplify their storage and understand their running systems. OpenSolaris 2008.11 unlocks these capabilities for a much broader set of users with ease-of-use tools like Time Slider and DLight. Breakthrough packaging and update technology, superior installation and maintenance, and a new I/O subsystem are just a few in a long list of top-to-bottom major improvements, providing significant visible value to virtually every customer.

OpenSolaris 2008.11 is quick and easy to download, deploy and use — and is perfectly suited to not just students and developers, but also to the system / storage admins who will deploy it in in a variety of enterprises. With five world record benchmarks already, it also delivers the performance that demanding customers need. For production customers who need support, globally-delivered subscription support services are just a few clicks away.

Through collaboration with Intel, OpenSolaris 2008.11 is the first operating system shipping which is already optimized for Intel Nehalem, a new processor to be released by Intel in 2009.

I hope you will check out these exciting new products yourself – I encourage you to download and install VirtualBox and OpenSolaris.

Congratulations to the OpenSolaris team and community on this enormous upgrade in our operating system offering.

John Fowler

EVP, Systems Group

Free Workshop : Open Storage and D-Trace

If you want to learn more about OpenStorage and D-Trace which are cutting edge technologies of OpenSolaris, it is time to get excited ! Because Solaris Product Specialist, Kjell Högström from Sun Microsystems is going to have a presentation about these new technologies on 28th of October, 2008 in Kista Campus (forum building) SAL-D at 5pm. We will also have a mingle session with refreshments along with Free DVDs and Operating System books.

Don’t miss this opportunity to listen to a professional and an experienced Unix administrator.

Click here for Facebook page for event…

For map click here…

More about the speaker :

Kjell Högström, Sun Microsystems AB,Sweden. He has been with Sun for nine years and since seven years ago he holds his position as product specialist for Solaris. Before joining Sun he worked at Uppsala University. He has seventeen years of Unix experience.

OSUM (Pronounced Awesome) Group

We created an OSUM group for those of you who want to connect with hundreds of student clubs (OSUMs) from around the world. You can register yourself at http://osum.sun.com/group/kthOSUM

Benefits for OSUM Members:

OSUM members will gain benefits that can help them prepare for an IT career by getting access to the latest open-source technologies including free media kits and student-developer resources. Training:

• Hands-on training through student projects and games
• Online training through the Sun Academic Initiative program
• Preparation for and discounts on Sun certification³
• OSUM activities that encourage team building

In addition, OSUM members can reap the following social benefits:

• Global social interaction and camaraderie with other student developers
• Opportunities to collaborate with each other on projects and activities in a fun and engaging way
• Development of interpersonal skills
• A better attitude about learning
• A sense of accomplishment, with a growing sense of competency and self-esteem
• Opportunities to get challenged, get motivated, and get excited

OSUM Elements:

The OSUM has two elements that create the organization: Physical and Virtual.

Physical: The OSUM energizes students to participate on campus in Sun’s communities through tech demos, projects, and activities based on open-source technologies and communities that Sun supports.

• Monthly meetings
• Typical activities
• Student projects
• Games
• Guest speakers
• Installfests
• Open-source events
• Face-to-face interaction with campus OSUM members

Virtual: OSUMs enables student developers to connect to each other and to Sun through a virtual social network. New OSUMs and existing student-developer groups that affiliate with the Sun OSUM program will receive free access to the OSUM web site. Benefits of this web site include the following:

• A feature-rich social networking site that can host the web site for each individual OSUM and connect it to OSUMs and their members around the world
• Everyday interaction with a global community of student developers

Students will be able to do the following:

• Write blogs
• Post comments
• Use an instant-messaging application
• Upload photos and videos
• Post profiles of themselves
• Communicate in forums

The OSUM web site allows students to participate and create the online communities. Students can create their own subgroups by technology, language, and other special interests.

SAI – Sun Academic Initiative

Dear Students, Staff and Employees of KTH !

It gives us a great pleasure to announce you the new SAI Learning Connection (SAILC). SAI Learning Connection will give you access to the FREE / No Cost web courses needed to get Sun Certified !

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Sun Announces World’s First Open Storage Platform

A decade ago, the server market looked very different than it does today. It was a market based on proprietary, closed technology, with limited opportunity for innovation. Then, the landscape changed, and server technology opened up around us.

Today, a similar sweeping change is happening in the storage marketplace, but this time, Sun is leading the way. Open Storage represents an important transition from proprietary, closed storage technology to open-source software, industry-standard hardware and innovative solutions.

Since Sun first introduced the concept of open storage one year ago, the OpenSolaris storage community has grown significantly with Sun- and non-Sun contributions, and OpenSolaris has become the industry’s best storage operating system. Many customers and original equipment manufacturers have already created storage infrastructure from general-purpose Sun servers and OpenSolaris with ZFS at a fraction of the cost of proprietary alternatives — without sacrificing any data integrity.

Because of the exciting hardware and software technology that’s emerged from years of engineering development at Sun, as well as the contributions of the OpenSolaris community, we are now able to offer the world’s first Open Storage platform. This is made possible through the combination of innovative storage features like ZFS in OpenSolaris, our industry-leading storage servers, and a forthcoming set of disk storage products based on breakthrough hardware technology. These advances in Sun’s core technologies create entire new revenue opportunities for Sun, enabling conversations with current and potential customers that were never before possible.

The benefits of Sun’s Open Storage approach to customers, developers, and partners are dramatic.

Because customers can now build storage infrastructure by combining OpenSolaris with general-purpose servers and simple disk enclosures, they are set free from the last bastion of proprietary technology in the data center. Sun’s Open Storage enables customers to freely mix and match data center components to produce storage systems which can be re-purposed by simply adding new software. With this approach, customers can accelerate the pace of their businesses and save up to 90% on their storage costs over closed, proprietary storage.

Developers can now deliver network storage services more quickly, on multiple platforms, with the support of a passionate open source storage community. And, consistent with Sun’s approach to all our products, we’re making our Open Storage technologies widely available, for the advancement of everyone in the industry.

Sun’s extensive expertise across the entire technology stack – microprocessor, server, storage, software, and networking – positions us to lead in this exciting new segment of the storage market. We have now come full circle since releasing NFS two decades ago – expanding the platform to not just network-attached storage, but to various other kinds of storage and countless new kinds of applications.

Once you feel you know what Open Storage is all about, test yourself by taking the Open Storage Challenge. The first 700 people to take the quiz will receive a “Set Your Storage Free” tie-dye t-shirt.

For More Information:
OpenSolaris Storage Community: http://opensolaris.org/os/storage
Open Storage Wiki: http://wikihome.sfbay.sun.com/Systems/Wiki.jsp?page=OpenStorage
Open Storage Expert Community Wiki: http://wikihome.sfbay.sun.com/openstorage/Wiki.jsp?page=Main
Open Storage Selling Resources: http://mysales.central.sun.com/public/storage/openstorage.html
Open Storage Sun.com website: http://www.sun.com/openstorage
Join the Open Storage Facebook community at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=12774638036

Student Reviews Contest

Review OpenSolaris OS and/or NetBeans IDE 6.1 for…
• a chance to win a grand prize of $250 in Visa Debit Card, and
• 5 chances to win a prize of $100 in Visa Debit Card
Simply:
1. Download OpenSolaris OS and/or NetBeans IDE 6.1.
2. Test the product and post a review!
3. Submit the URL of your review.
4. Do it before June 6, 2008.

Need ideas for what to post to claim the top prize? Here are some suggestions:
a) Describe your OpenSolaris OS installation experience and what it took for you to make it up and running on your hardware platform
b) Run benchmarks and show how OpenSolaris OS performed against a competing OS
c) Create a “how-to” on solving a specific problem using OpenSolaris OS  or NetBeans IDE 6.1 (use detailed instructions, code snippets, commands and outputs etc. as appropriate)
d) Share your deep insight about OpenSolaris OS  or NetBeans IDE 6.1, including your favorite features
e) Give suggestions on how to enhance the OpenSolaris OS or NetBeans IDE 6.1
f) Build a cool plug-in to share with the NetBeans Community.

Student Contest Description

Student Contest Flier

Student Reviews Contest Rules

Introduction to Sun Spot – Kista Campus

Introduction to Sun Spot – Main Campus

OpenSolaris Community Innovation Awards Program

What are the OpenSolaris Community Innovation Awards?

The OpenSolaris Community Innovation Awards are intended to recognize and reward new, enabling, innovative, and high-performance uses of OpenSolaris technology, or substantial contributions to the OpenSolaris community. This program is part of a broader Community Innovation Awards Program whose goals are to “foster innovation and recognize the most interesting initiatives within open source communities worldwide.” Sun is the primary sponsor of this program and intends to contribute over $1 million across six open source communities.

We hope these awards will encourage more people to participate in the OpenSolaris community. Join a community, a project, a forum or other discussion. Use OpenSolaris. Study OpenSolaris.

To that end:

• A large chunk, $75,000, of the award money is designated for grants for undergraduate research on OpenSolaris.
• The contest portion, $100,000, of the award money is open to a broad range of entries. You can enter code that will eventually be putback into OpenSolaris (such as a device driver), or you can write a program that runs on top of the OS (such as a tool or game), or your entry can be something that is not code at all. You could enter materials for an operating systems course based on OpenSolaris (lecture notes, student guide, labs). Project Ideas lists some ideas for entries. These are just suggestions to get you started thinking about what you want to do. Contest Entries lists the entries that users have already registered for this contest.

What are the Prizes?

29 prizes are available:

• 1 Grand Prize: $30,000
• 3 First Prizes: $15,000 each
• 25 Second Prizes: $1,000 each

All prizes are in U.S. dollars. Entries will be reviewed by an expert panel of judges.

Check this page frequently for updates and announcements.

Thanks, and good luck!

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OpenSolaris Presentation at KTH/Kista Campus

Today (13,March 2008), we had a presentation at KTH/Kista campus about the new and hottest features of OpenSolaris. We had 2 different sessions. The first session was about the world first 128-bit file system, which is ZFS and its new abilities, then the second session was about the DTrace, which is about controlling whats is going on in your operating system. In addition we talked about the free online courses (SAI) for KTH students. If you are a student at KTH and want to access the free online courses please send us an e-mail from your KTH account and we will send you the user name, and company ID for KTH. (Alper Celik: Alper.Celik@Sun.com or Gokhan Dogan: Gokhan.Dogan@Sun.com)

We had 35-40 students in presentation and the speaker was Kjell Högström. He has been with Sun for nine years and seven years ago he holds the position as product specialist for Solaris. Before joining Sun he worked at Uppsala University. He has seventeen years of Unix experience.

In the photos below, you can see the Sal E in Kista before the presentation and the free stuff, refreshments. We gave lots of free t-shirts, starter kits,CDs and so on. We will continue to have this kind of presentations and please stay. tuned !!!

Some of the students wanted the presentation slides, here you can download the pdf version of presentation slides and we can provide you more and detailed information about OpenSolaris if you need any. Please feel free to contact with us.

Some Videos From Presentation

Some Additional Slides for OpenSolaris

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