The Solaris Express Developer Edition Release

The Solaris Express Developer Edition 5/07 (Developer) release includes new device drivers and additional developer tools. In addition, you can now upgrade your Developer release. Additional developer tools include Sun Studio 12, NetBeans Visual Web Pack 5.5, and NetBeans Profiler 5.5.

Starting with the Solaris Express Developer Edition 2/07 release, a new installation provides a simple initial installation of the Solaris OS for your laptop. Combined with community and Sun support and training services, the Developer release includes the tools, technologies, and platforms that enable developers to create custom Solaris, Java^TM, and Web 2.0 applications.

The Developer release installs a Solaris system that is automatically networked by using DHCP with DNS name resolution. IPv6 is also enabled. The Solaris Developer release is an initial installation, not an upgrade.

The Developer release is the new default installation from the DVD. In the initial installation screen, you now see the following choices with the Developer release as the default.

Solaris Express Developer Edition
Solaris Express
Solaris Express Serial Console ttya
Solaris Express Serial Console ttyb (for lx50,v60x and v65x)

The “Solaris Express” and “Solaris Express Serial Console” installations provide system administrators with the necessary choices to set up servers and clients. Because of the configuration choices, these installations require more time. These installation options do not include the developer tools. If you choose the Solaris Express Developer Edition option and do not have enough memory to run the graphical user interface (GUI), you must select one the of the other “Solaris Express” installations on the screen.

The Developer release includes the following developer tools, operating system, and desktop:

• Sun^TM Studio 11 – C, C++, Fortran compilers, IDE, and integrated tools

• NetBeans^TM IDE 5.5 – An open-sourced IDE for Java software developers

• NetBeans IDE Enterprise Pack 5.5 – Added to the NetBeans IDE, functionality to develop Java Platform, Enterprise Edition 5 based applications

• Java Platform, Standard Edition 6 – The OpenJDK based release of the Java platform JDK

• StarOffice^TM 8 – The OpenOffice based productivity suite, including word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation tools

• Open Source Tools – Over 150 open source applications, including Perl, Python, and GCC

• Solaris Express operating system and desktop - Includes new features from the Java Desktop System (JDS). JDS is a secure and comprehensive enterprise desktop software solution that combines open-source innovation from communities such as GNOME, and Firefox. The Desktop includes the following:

  • GNOME 2.16 - The latest enhanced GNOME desktop

  • Firefox 2.0 and Thunderbird 1.5 - Current release of Mozilla browser and email service

  • Orca - Screen reader and magnifier for the JDS/GNOME desktop

  • Java and GNOME bindings for the GNOME Platform libraries and the Cairo 2D drawing engine - Enable GNOME and GTK+ applications to be written in Java software

  • NetBeans plug-ins - Used in the NetBeans IDE to create applications

  • Ekiga - An open-source desktop Voice over IP (VoIP) and video-conferencing application for the GNOME desktop

  • Vino - Provides the ability to remotely administer a desktop session

  To learn more about the JDS features, see Open Solaris http://opensolaris.org/os/project/jds/.

The Solaris Express Developer Edition is currently only for x86 based systems. However, developers on SPARC based systems can obtain similar functionality by downloading Solaris Express Community Edition and then installing Sun Studio and NetBeans IDE 5.5 with NetBeans Enterprise Pack 5.5.

Downloads are available at the following Web sites:

• Solaris Express Community Edition

• Sun Studio 11

• NetBeans IDE 5.5 with NetBeans Enterprise Pack 5.5.