Solaris Express 2/05 (snv_07) has been released to the world. Additions mentioned on the Express site include: Intelligent Platform Management Interface, Webmin, Apache Version 2, Solaris x86 64-bit Support, and Solaris x86 Kernel Selection (!!!). Earlier, in the blog of the one and only Alan Hargreaves he summorized some of the new features which he lists as: Support for iSCSI Devices (software initiator), Fibre Channel HBA Port Utility (32-bit x86 only), Metaslot in the Cryptographic Framework, IKE Enhancements, X.Org Release 6.8.2, and addition of the Chelsio 10G Ethernet Driver. Download it in the usual place.

The OpenPKG project has released version 2.3 of their unique RPM-based cross-platform multi-instance Unix software packaging facility.

OpenPKG 2.3 consists of 545 selected (from a pool of over 850) packages which include latest versions of
popular Unix software like Apache, Bash, BIND, GCC, INN, Mozilla, MySQL, OpenSSH, Perl, Postfix, PostgreSQL, Samba, Squid, teTeX and Vim. All software is carefully packaged for easy deployment on 21 different Unix platforms, including FreeBSD 4.11/5.3/6.0, NetBSD 2.0, Debian GNU/Linux 3.0/3.1, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3, Fedora Core 3, SuSE Linux 9.2, SuSE Enterprise Linux 9, Mandrake Linux 10.1, Apple MacOS X 10.3, HP HP-UX 11.11 and Sun Solaris 8/9/10.

Sun is now advertising Fujitsu’s PRIMEPOWER servers on sun.com. As announced in June 2004, Sun and Fujitsu will be merging their SPARC (UltraSPARC and SPARC64) product lines into a single family called the Advanced Product Line by 2006.

According to this ZDNet article, Sun’s “Galaxy” Opteron-based servers (with as many as eight CPUs per system) have been pushed back to late summer 2005. The Galaxy servers are Sun’s first Opteron systems designed in-house rather than relabeling machines manufactured by another company.

Registration is now open for Solaris 10 System and Network Administration Beta Exams. Not only do you get to be the first to sneak a peak at the exams but passing the exams will count toward the real cert, and the best part is that there is no cost. Here is your chance to get your Solaris certification for free. Go here to register for the exams and look at sample questions.

Sun has put the beta version of StarOffice 8 up for public download.

Sun has announced speed increases to 1.6Ghz for the UltraSPARC IIIi processors used in the SunBlade 1500 and 2500 workstations, as well as a promotion where customers can get a SunPCI-IIIpro card for $1 when purchased with a SunBlade 1500 or 2500.

In addition, customers can upgrade Xeon-based workstations and get $600 (USD) off the price of a new AMD Opteron processor-based Sun Java Workstation W1100z or W2100z. Solaris OS developers and system administrators can get 25 percent off the price of an upgraded Sun Blade workstation, and education customers can get 45 percent off the price of a new Sun Java Workstation.