Solaris (original) (raw)

summary

Solaris is a UNIX-based† operating system made by Sun MicroSystems that runs on Sun SPARC and Intel/Cyrix/AMD Pentium.

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further reading: books on Solaris

“SunOS (1.x - 4.x) is Sun’s original, BSD-based Unix. Solaris 2.x is Sun’s newer, System V Release 4-based Unix. Which means it has STREAMS networking, System V interprocess communication, and so on, as well as some SunOS compatibility libraries so it can still run SunOS software. Solaris 1.x — this is the part where it gets confusing — is the same as SunOS 4.x.” —Chris Hansone55

“Sun OS is basically all the “real unix” stuff. Solaris is a bundling of Sun-OS with all the “window dressing” (pun intended) like CDE (Common Desktop Environment) a.k.a. the GUI, and other OS “accessories” like a Web browser, etc.” —Greg T. Loosee57

Intended purpose

server/mainframe: medium to large scale servers; corporate databases; supercomputers

desktop/workstation: workstations (for those with UNIX familiarity)

handheld: not appropriate

real time: not appropriate

Kind of OS: proprietary System V Release 4-based UNIX †e55

“SunOS is part of Solaris. Current versions of SunOS were originally based on the AT&T SVR4.0 flavor of Unix. Since then it has diverged. SunOS is compliant with the Open Group’s Unix 98 specifications (http://www.UNIX-systems.org/).” —Greg Onufere68

Release Date:

Current Version: 8e116

Cost: $695 single user or 5-user licensew40

Hardware Supported: Sun SPARC, Intel/Cyrix/AMD Pentium, Intel 486DXw28

Maximum Number of Processors: 64e64

“SunOS 4 supports 1 processor per system except in some very old configurations (4/6xx series machines with slow processors). SunOS 5 supports up to 64 processors in a single box (the E10000, for example).” —Greg Onufere64

Number of bits: 64e107

“Digital UNIX continues to dominate the 64-bit arena, leaving HP-UX and IRIX to contest the second position, followed closely by AIX. Solaris and NT trail significantly behind. Solaris does not yet provide support for 64-bit processes, so it falls somewhat further behind and potential compatibility issues remain largely unknown. Still, Sun has migrated over half its product line to 64-bit hardware, and provides support for large amounts of physical memory, both of which are still missing from NT.” —D.H. Brown Associatesw43

Kernel: proprietary

POSIX: compatible

Peripherals: “all current Sparc peripherals, some PC peripherals” —Kristian Elof Sørensenw36

File Systems Supported:

preferred file system: UFS (NRWF)e21
file systems can read/write: FAT (RW)e37
read/write through third party software: DFS (server and client)e118; SMB (RW) through SAMBA

Graphics Engine:

Text Command Shell: UNIX shells

User Interface (graphic): Common Desktop Environment (CDE)e57

Graphic Command Shell:

Internet Services:

Businesses and organizations with servers powered by Solaris: AccountOnline.com, AllHealth.com, Amiga.org, Andover.net, AOL (America On Line), Apple Computers (also uses Mac OS X Server), Aria.com, AT&T, BabyCenter.com, BillGates.com, BMGMusicService.com, CNN (Cable News Network), CNNSI.com, Discovery.com, Disney.com, Epicurious.com, Equifax, E-Trade.com, FoodTV.com, General Electric, General Motors, GetSmart.com, Java.Sun.com, MacroMedia, More.com, MTV, MyCoupons.com, nCipher, Netscape, NYTimes.com, Oracle, OurHouse.com, Penthouse, PepsiCo, Playboy, Shockwave.com, SportsLine.com, Sun MicroSystems, Virgin.com, WashingtonPost.com, Weather.com, WhiteHouse.gov, W3.orgw52

ftp://ftp.eng.auburn.edu/pub/doug/ “bootp-DH2.x” free, patched CMU BOOTP-DD2.4.x server from Doug Hughes of auburn.edu. Supports DHCP, even for Win95 clients. Adds the patches from the Samba mailing list to support PCNFS and Win95 simultaneously. For SunOS 4.x, Solaris 2.x, Linux, and NetBSD servers.

http://www.isc.org/products/DHCP “Internet Software Consortium DHCP Server, Client, and Relay agent” freely redistributable tools: source builds on most Unix platforms, Mac, NeXTStep, and Rhapsody.

http://www.princeton.edu/~irwin/dhcpd.html “Princeton Patches to CMU dhcpd 3.3.7” free software provides DHCP, bootp, tftp, true dynamic IP addresses, and reporting tool for NetBSD and Solaris.

http://www.join.com “JOIN DHCP/DDNS” commercial integrated DHCP and DDNS servers from Join Systems for DHCP and BootP clients running on SunOS 4.x, Solaris 2.x SPARC and x86, Digital UNIX, HP-UX 10.x using Motif GUI, evaluation copies available online.

http://www.baynetworks.com/Products/nav/f_netid_3_0.html “NetID” commercial DHCP/DDNS server from Bay Networks that runs on Solaris, HP-UX, Windows NT 4.0, and Windows 95; links into Oracle and Sybase, with tools for managing IP addresses.

Sun follows, with good support for NFS functions and the second-place array of TCP/IP extensions. However, Sun relies on its own Web server, rather than Netscape, Microsoft or Apache, and lacks authoring tools as well as important services such as Novell’s NDS directory service.” —Digital Equipment Corporation, “AIX 4.3 Leaps To 64-Bits In Dead Heat With Digital UNIX 4.0”w51

See also chart of internet features.

Other:

“Yesterday’s college students learned their Unix expertise on Linux and FreeBSD. Today they’re working in IT departments, and many of them are openly hostile to both Microsoft and Windows NT. As a result, Linux, BSD, Solaris, and other forms of Unix are finding their way into IT departments, both overtly and on the sly.” —Nicholas Petreley, “The new Unix alters NT’s orbit”, NC Worldw74

“Solaris 2.6 scores moderately well in system management and PC interoperability, but falls short in remaining areas. The operating system is unable to match many useful line-item features found in other systems that have benefited from a massive investment.” —D.H. Brown Associatesw42