"Trying to get a feel for Sun's Linux Java Desktop System"
A recent article published on the Linux Journal provides an interesting assessment of Sun's overall desktop strategy. The author, Tom Adelstein, who is also the author of Exploring the JDS Linux Destkop, asks "Is JDS, in fact, ready as an enterprise desktop?"
Tom goes on to attempt to make sense of Sun's business model by taking a critical look at the Sun Ray, Sun's "Ultra Thin Client" access appliance. Tom states "If you contact Sun about its alternate desktop, the company is likely to present you with a proposal to move from standard PC hardware to its Ray [sic] thin client infrastructure." Tom then states that "Solaris 10 does not support the Sun Ray server-side software" and that "Solaris x86 does not support the Sun Ray 3.0 server-side software." Tom goes on to point out that Sun Ray servers do support various Linux distributions including Red Hat, SuSE and JDS Linux itself. Tom finally attempts to "connect the dots" of these statements to question the rationale of Sun's desktop strategy.
Tom's assessment is confused on a variety of fronts. First of all, he assumes that the Sun Ray thin client technology is somehow cost prohibitive because it "involves an infrastructure change". In fact, enterprise customers will tell you that the existing infrastructure for stateful PCs is a source of constant support and upgrade costs that devastate thier ability to react to changing business requirements. Independent of Sun Ray's, many customers are turning to thin client solutions to centralize the adminstration and control of desktop infrastructure and reduce infrastructure costs. And the Sun Ray is unique in its adherence to a completely stateless model optimized for secure and manageable enterprise deployments. The fact that Sun is "likely to propose" the Sun Ray simply indicates that Sun is focused on reducing Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for the enterprise, not simply providing a non-Microsoft desktop.
To some degree, Tom's assessment is based on a false assumption - that enterprises are not as interested in reducing costs and complexity as they are in deploying Linux. I have spoken with numerous customers and they've never stated that Linux itself was the goal. On the contrary, they are focused on lowering costs, increasing security, increasing vendor choice and extending hardware and software life cycles. If that means Linux, then Sun can provide a solution. If that means "fat clients", Sun has a solution there. If that means Windows, Sun has solutions that run very nicely on Windows (StarOffice and Java, for example). Perhaps Tom's real problem is that we offer too much choice, allowing customers to move at a pace and level (hardware, software or both) that fits their needs. Perhaps, in reality, it is Linux (and the Linux "agenda") that Tom sees as the highest priority while Sun sees the priority in maximizing customer choice.
Which brings me to the matter of the Sun Ray server software (SRSS). As Tom points out, Sun has yet to release a version of the SRSS that runs on Solaris 10. But that does not mean we do not plan to have one - support for Solaris 10, both SPARC and x86 platforms, is a high priority for SRSS. But this is somehow confused with Sun's desktop strategy. Although it is true that SRSS will expose the desktop of the OS on which it is running, it is also true that SRSS can be used to manage the connections of a Sun Ray device to a variety of desktop environments, including Windows. In short, SRSS is middleware designed to manage secure access of a client device with centrally managed environments including Red Hat, SuSE, JDS/Solaris, Windows and JDS/Linux - sometimes all of the above!
Most of the rest of Tom's assessment is viewed through the lens of Sun's Linux offerings - not suprising given that the article is published in the Linux Journal :-) But the answers to the "hard questions" allow that lens to greatly distort the view of Sun's desktop strategy. When Tom asks "how big is the support organization", he answers only that Sun out-sources support for Linux. Sun has a global, experienced support organization that numbers in the thousands and provides support for all of Sun's desktop products, not just Linux. When asking if Sun has a professional services organization, Tom answers that "one might find it difficult to say whether Sun offers formal professional support for Linux". Sun has an extensive professional services organization that focuses on desktop solutions for large enterprises as well as partnerships with global system integrators like EDS.
Sun offers a wide variety of desktop solutions. We provide StarOffice for Windows, Linux and Solaris and contribute the vast majority of the StarOffice code and modifications to the OpenOffice community. We provide the Java Runtime Environment for Windows, Linux and Solaris and, through our OEM relationships with Dell, HP, Toshiba, Gateway, Sony and others, we provide the broadest distribution of compatible, platform-independent desktop APIs on the planet. We provide back end services for desktops including app servers, web servers, directory servers, mail servers and calendar servers. And we offer software-only solutions for existing desktop hardware (both Solaris and Linux), our own SPARC and x86 based workstations and the Sun Ray for cost effective, secure thin clients.
Perhaps it is this wide array of choice that makes Tom nervous. If so, then it begs the question, if an alternative desktop strategy is not about choice, what is it about?
Tom goes on to attempt to make sense of Sun's business model by taking a critical look at the Sun Ray, Sun's "Ultra Thin Client" access appliance. Tom states "If you contact Sun about its alternate desktop, the company is likely to present you with a proposal to move from standard PC hardware to its Ray [sic] thin client infrastructure." Tom then states that "Solaris 10 does not support the Sun Ray server-side software" and that "Solaris x86 does not support the Sun Ray 3.0 server-side software." Tom goes on to point out that Sun Ray servers do support various Linux distributions including Red Hat, SuSE and JDS Linux itself. Tom finally attempts to "connect the dots" of these statements to question the rationale of Sun's desktop strategy.
Tom's assessment is confused on a variety of fronts. First of all, he assumes that the Sun Ray thin client technology is somehow cost prohibitive because it "involves an infrastructure change". In fact, enterprise customers will tell you that the existing infrastructure for stateful PCs is a source of constant support and upgrade costs that devastate thier ability to react to changing business requirements. Independent of Sun Ray's, many customers are turning to thin client solutions to centralize the adminstration and control of desktop infrastructure and reduce infrastructure costs. And the Sun Ray is unique in its adherence to a completely stateless model optimized for secure and manageable enterprise deployments. The fact that Sun is "likely to propose" the Sun Ray simply indicates that Sun is focused on reducing Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for the enterprise, not simply providing a non-Microsoft desktop.
To some degree, Tom's assessment is based on a false assumption - that enterprises are not as interested in reducing costs and complexity as they are in deploying Linux. I have spoken with numerous customers and they've never stated that Linux itself was the goal. On the contrary, they are focused on lowering costs, increasing security, increasing vendor choice and extending hardware and software life cycles. If that means Linux, then Sun can provide a solution. If that means "fat clients", Sun has a solution there. If that means Windows, Sun has solutions that run very nicely on Windows (StarOffice and Java, for example). Perhaps Tom's real problem is that we offer too much choice, allowing customers to move at a pace and level (hardware, software or both) that fits their needs. Perhaps, in reality, it is Linux (and the Linux "agenda") that Tom sees as the highest priority while Sun sees the priority in maximizing customer choice.
Which brings me to the matter of the Sun Ray server software (SRSS). As Tom points out, Sun has yet to release a version of the SRSS that runs on Solaris 10. But that does not mean we do not plan to have one - support for Solaris 10, both SPARC and x86 platforms, is a high priority for SRSS. But this is somehow confused with Sun's desktop strategy. Although it is true that SRSS will expose the desktop of the OS on which it is running, it is also true that SRSS can be used to manage the connections of a Sun Ray device to a variety of desktop environments, including Windows. In short, SRSS is middleware designed to manage secure access of a client device with centrally managed environments including Red Hat, SuSE, JDS/Solaris, Windows and JDS/Linux - sometimes all of the above!
Most of the rest of Tom's assessment is viewed through the lens of Sun's Linux offerings - not suprising given that the article is published in the Linux Journal :-) But the answers to the "hard questions" allow that lens to greatly distort the view of Sun's desktop strategy. When Tom asks "how big is the support organization", he answers only that Sun out-sources support for Linux. Sun has a global, experienced support organization that numbers in the thousands and provides support for all of Sun's desktop products, not just Linux. When asking if Sun has a professional services organization, Tom answers that "one might find it difficult to say whether Sun offers formal professional support for Linux". Sun has an extensive professional services organization that focuses on desktop solutions for large enterprises as well as partnerships with global system integrators like EDS.
Sun offers a wide variety of desktop solutions. We provide StarOffice for Windows, Linux and Solaris and contribute the vast majority of the StarOffice code and modifications to the OpenOffice community. We provide the Java Runtime Environment for Windows, Linux and Solaris and, through our OEM relationships with Dell, HP, Toshiba, Gateway, Sony and others, we provide the broadest distribution of compatible, platform-independent desktop APIs on the planet. We provide back end services for desktops including app servers, web servers, directory servers, mail servers and calendar servers. And we offer software-only solutions for existing desktop hardware (both Solaris and Linux), our own SPARC and x86 based workstations and the Sun Ray for cost effective, secure thin clients.
Perhaps it is this wide array of choice that makes Tom nervous. If so, then it begs the question, if an alternative desktop strategy is not about choice, what is it about?
Posted by Doug Scott on April 05, 2005 at 09:49 PM PDT #
Alternative desktop? It's about BS and marketing/hype(think skype). Are you buying? opensolaris is more to bring over people who are leery of Sun Sparc, but who want a no risk chance to sample/try out the technology. And, if you think it's awesome on x86 and x64, you're going to hella love it on Sparc.
Through the looking glass,
Mark
Posted by Mark on May 01, 2009 at 03:00 PM PDT #