Debian Linux dropping SPARC support (for now)

Posted by Bill Bradford on Jul 27, 2015

According to this Debian Devel-Announce mailing list post, support for the SPARC architecture is being dropped from the Debian linux distribution. Debian SPARC has for years been a 64-bit kernel with a 32-bit userland, and there are notes that it may return as fully 64-bit (both kernel and userland) in the future.

Sun to build supercomputer for Australian Bureau of Meteorology

Posted by Bill Bradford on Mar 20, 2009

This article describes Sun’s $30M deal with Australia’s BOM to build a supercomputer cluster.

Located at BOM in Melbourne and the ANU in Canberra, the HPC environments will have more than 2500 Sun Blade (1500 at ANU, 1000 at BOM) server modules based on the new Intel “Nehalem” Xeon processor.

Wind River to port Carrier Grade Linux to UltraSPARC T2

Posted by Bill Bradford on Apr 16, 2008

Sun and Wind River Systems have announced that Wind River Systems will be porting its Carrier Grade Linux suite and development tools to work on Sun’s UltraSPARC T2 processor.

Sun wants OpenSolaris to challenge Linux

Posted by Bill Bradford on Sep 4, 2007

This Computerworld UK article has details about Sun’s plan to have OpenSolaris be a serious alternative to Linux for certain markets.

“There’s an enormous momentum building behind Solaris,” said Ian Murdock, chief operating platforms officer at Sun. He joined Sun in March after serving as the chief technology officer of the Linux Foundation. Murdock is also the creator of the Debian Linux distribution and is keen to take the lessons he’s learned in the Linux community and apply them to Solaris.

Sun is preparing to release OpenSolaris binaries early next year in a distribution code-named “Project Indiana” that will be similar to Linux distributions. The work, which is getting under way in the OpenSolaris community, is aimed at creating a single CD installation of the basic OS and desktop environment, giving developers the option to install additional software from network repositories.

More details on Sun’s “Project Indiana”

Posted by Bill Bradford on Jul 17, 2007

Ars Technica has a short, but good article about Sun’s “Project Indiana”, an effort (led by Debian founder Ian Murdock) to turn OpenSolaris into a practical distribution modeled after mainstream Linux releases.

“Project Indiana” to bring Linux-like functionality to Solaris

Posted by Bill Bradford on May 9, 2007

This NEWS.COM article gives some background on Sun’s “Project Indiana”, an effort led by Ian Murdock, Sun’s new Chief Operating Systems Officer and founder of the Debian distribution of Linux. The goal of the project is to add Linux-like features to Solaris in order to aid user transition and interoperability.

Sun hires Debian Linux founder

Posted by Bill Bradford on Mar 19, 2007

Sun has hired Ian Murdock, founder of the Debian GNU/Linux distribution and chair of the Linux Standards Base, as its new Chief Operating Platforms Officer.

Java EE 5 Application Server to be available on Ubuntu Linux

Posted by Bill Bradford on Nov 8, 2006

Sun and Canonical have announced that the “GlassFish” reference implementation of the Java EE 5 Application Server will be made available for Ubuntu Linux.

Canonical furthered its push into the enterprise by announcing imminent certification and support for Ubuntu on Sun’s x64 (x86, 64-bit) hardware, powered by AMD Opteron processors. Canonical had earlier announced certification of Ubuntu on Sun’s UltraSPARC(R) processor-based Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 servers featuring CoolThreads technology. The expansion announced today includes support for the Sun Fire X4100 and X4200 servers, as well as the Sun Ultra 20 and 40 Workstations. This means that enterprises will now be able to run Ubuntu on Sun’s x64 systems with the confidence of five-year software support provided by Canonical.

Gentoo Linux certified for T1000/T2000

Posted by Bill Bradford on Oct 27, 2006

Gentoo Linux has been certified by Sun for use on T1000 and T2000 systems.

Sun donated a T2000 server and assisted the Gentoo/SPARC team with the port.

Ubuntu Linux on the Sun Fire T1000

Posted by Bill Bradford on Aug 15, 2006

Smugmug‘s Don McCaskill has a good review of Ubuntu Linux on the “CoolThreads” T1000 server.

Sun Studio 11 Compilers for Linux

Posted by Bill Bradford on Jul 26, 2006

Sun has made a Technology Preview version of its Sun Studio Compilers for Linux available in addition to the company’s other offerings for Linux.

Canonical Ltd. supports UltraSPARC T1-based Sun Fire Servers with Ubuntu Linux

Posted by Bill Bradford on May 30, 2006

Sun Microsystems, Inc. and Canonical Ltd. today announced that Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Long Term Support), the upcoming release of the GNU/Linux distribution, will support the UltraSPARC T1 processor on Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 servers.

With the release of Ubuntu 6.06 LTS, SPARC will become one of Ubuntu’s officially supported server architectures. Ubuntu is available free of charge and includes free security updates for all officially supported architectures. Ubuntu 6.06 LTS server support will be available for a period of five (5) years. Canonical will also offer technical support for SPARC-based systems on a paid, commercial basis.

Ubuntu Linux runs on UltraSPARC T1!

Posted by Bill Bradford on Mar 11, 2006

According to this mailing list post, a test version of Ubuntu Linux is now available for UltraSPARC T1-based (Sun T1K/T2K) systems.

Bell Labs disbands original UNIX development department

Posted by Bill Bradford on Aug 16, 2005

According to this article by Peter Salus (whom I’ve had the pleasure of meeting) at UnixReview, Bell Labs has finally disbanded Department 1127, the group originally responsible for development of the UNIX operating system.

Project Looking Glass 3D LiveCD Available

Posted by Bill Bradford on Mar 3, 2005

Project Looking Glass now has a “Live CD” demonstration availabe for download, based on the Knoppix distribution.