Dated. Jan.2006
Author. Pete Durst :: Director of Technology :: ExitCertified

Sun has had some ups and downs with their support for the PC/x86 platform. In fact, at one point in the past, they had temporarily stopped supporting PC's altogether. It wasn't until a large number of system administrators made it known how important the OS was, that Sun again resumed its work on the product. Since then, they have worked hard on getting the OS up to today's standards and to get it re-engineered to work on the 64bit CPU based systems. With the release of Solaris 10 for both the sparc cpu and x86/x64 based systems, they have done what they have set out to do. They wanted to make an operating system that will take advantage of all the features in the hardware and work with a wide variety of PC platforms and have done so.

To test this out, I decided to build a new system using current technologies and see how the platform faired with the new OS. For the OS, I chose Solaris 10 Update 1 (dated December 2005), and for the hardware, I decided that a custom approach would be the best test for the hardware side. For this system, I chose to use an Amd Athalon 64 x2 based cpu. This is one of the newer dual core cpu's. I also chose to use a SATA based hard disk, along with a PCI-e based video card. To top off the system, I added a DVD-RW drive. The keyboard and mouse are Logitech standard versions. A complete list of hardware follows this article.

After putting the hardware together, I installed the OS from the downloaded DVD image. The install has changed from previous versions, and takes into consideration all the possible install methods available (custom jumpstart, flash archive and local media). I took the manual approach with the local media, answered the prompts as required and got the OS installed.

One of the new approaches that Sun has taken with their OS is that they have open sourced most of the code (available at opensolaris.org for those that want to get into the nuts and bolts of the OS). With that change in heart, they are also more open to how things should be done in the OS and have incorporated a large number of new features based upon their feedback at the new site. One of the first ones that you notice when installing this version of the OS is the change in the boot manager. This was one of the banes for their previous versions of the x86 platform. It was a primitive and difficult manager and was extremely difficult to work around. With the new version, they have adopted the popular GRUB (GRand Unified Boot manager) used by many of the Linux based systems. This is a very easy to use system and gives the OS the flexibility to co-exist with other operating systems such as Linux or Windows.

Having the extra CPU available makes working on the platform a dream too. It allows the system to process data in a better more efficient manor and of course that means speed. I use JDS as my desktop choice for my day to day work on this system and on this system, it's a pleasure indeed. I also use the system to look after testing of the companies jumpstart servers, and have successfully spooled/setup both x86 and sparc based versions of the OS, from Solaris 8 through to Solaris 10, so its earned its keep, as it were.

All in all, this new system performs extremely well, is very stable and has the capacity to handle the tasks that I give it. For me, this system gains a “two thumbs up” award for doing such a great job.

Hardware information:

This is one of the best cases that I have worked with. It comes with three 120mm fans each with a low/med/hi speed selector switch. Even on high, they run very quietly. The power supply has 2 fans, one of which is temperature controlled, only coming on when required. The CPU is using the standard fan included with it, and is currently running at 31 degrees C (which is very good). The SATA disk is a very good disk with low latency and pretty good data throughputs. I kept my costs down by going with an older/slower video card, but am still quite happy with the performance and capabilities of it.

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