January 28, 2005, UC Berkeley, California, USA

Agenda

• Sun, AMD Opteron and what it means to you
• Sun's desktop strategy
• Managed services
• Solaris 10
• Identity management and keeping your systems secure

Q&A

Some of the questions asked by Matt Ghali - our community member:

• Where on the Sun website can I find published benchmarks comparing Solaris vs. Linux on Sun's AMD hardware? Where on the Sun website can I find published benchmarks comparing Solaris on AMD vs. Solaris on SPARC?

  I was referred to www.sun.com/v20z for both questions. When I pointed out that the only benchmarks linked from that page were OS-independent AMD vs. Xeon comparisons, the "Sun, AMD Opteron and what it means to you" presenter , Marc Hamilton, Director of Client Solutions,said that Sun's website was very big, and the information I was looking for is 'probably in there somewhere'.

• Is there a published roadmap for mobile AMD workstations, and wireless networking support for Solaris 10 AMD mobile workstations?

  The presenter of "Sun's desktop strategy", Ismet Nesicolaci from US Desktop and Mobility Solutions, said "no". He recommended that I contact RDI/Tadpole, who only provides SPARC mobile workstation solutions. He failed to even mention the 'Ferrari' AMD laptops in wide use internally within Sun.

  Marc Hamiton mentioned a developer mobile platform program in the beginning stages but that there is no public timeline that Sun has committed to for delivering mobile AMD platforms.

• SunRay server 3.0 for Solaris on Intel: is this planned and if so, when will it be released?

  It is a planned product but no release schedule is currently committed to. It may be released in the next 12 months.

• Does the upward OS release compatibility guarantee apply only to applications, or does it also cover drivers?

  Marc Hamilton stated that it is a promise of universal binary compatibility, and that upward compatibility is a universal promise. The Xig drivers which break in Solaris 10 are a question to follow up on.

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