Sun integrates GNOME into Solaris, resumes shipping V210, V240 servers

IDG News Service - Three years after pledging to integrate its Solaris operating system with the open-source GNU Object Model Environment (GNOME) desktop, Sun Microsystems Inc. is finally ready to deliver.
The next version of Solaris, Version 9 8/03, which will begin shipping on Sun's systems on Aug. 13, will offer users the choice of running the operating system with the look and feel of the GNOME 2.0 desktop, instead of booting up with the more traditional Common Desktop Environment user interface.
"Now GNOME is actually integrated as a part of Solaris 9," said Solaris Product Management Group manager Bill Moffitt. "We will take bug reports against it, and we'll promise a fix."
Previously, GNOME was bundled with Solaris, but only as an add-on CD that wasn't supported by Sun.
The GNOME project is a collection of open-source software founded by developer Miguel de Icaza in 1997. It's made up of hundreds of desktop applications, from file managers to calculators to games, as well as a number of software development tools. Along with the K Desktop Environment, it's one of the most popular desktop environments for Linux.
Sun announced plans to support GNOME within Solaris in August 2000. Since then, GNOME has been working its way through the slow process of not only being ported to Sun's version of Unix, Solaris, but also of being approved by Sun's various architectural review and product approval committees. "We have a fairly long development cycle in Solaris," Moffitt said.
The new version of GNOME won't be the only enhancement to Solaris 9 8/03. Sun also plans to extend Solaris' Unix file system to support 16TB of data, and it will have a speedier version of its Live Upgrade software that will let users upgrade the operating system in less time. Sun is also enhancing its Solaris Volume Manager software so that it can convert storage devices formatted by the Veritas Volume Manager into the Solaris Volume Manager format.
In other news, the company also said it has fixed a data corruption problem with its new Sun Fire V210 and V240 servers and has resumed shipments of the two Unix machines.
Sun started selling the two servers in May but abruptly ceased shipments on June 23 when it discovered a flaw in the systems' Ethernet ports that could corrupt the entire system. "This was something that was detected in manufacturing as part of our ongoing quality testing," said Sun spokeswoman Kasey Holman. "To date, no customers have experienced any issues as a result of this component error."
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