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Sun releases Solaris 9 for beta testing

The company begins beta testing of Solaris 9, the next version of its Unix operating system, due in 2002.

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Stephen Shankland
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Stephen Shankland principal writer
Stephen Shankland has been a reporter at CNET since 1998 and writes about processors, digital photography, AI, quantum computing, computer science, materials science, supercomputers, drones, browsers, 3D printing, USB, and new computing technology in general. He has a soft spot in his heart for standards groups and I/O interfaces. His first big scoop was about radioactive cat poop.
Expertise processors, semiconductors, web browsers, quantum computing, supercomputers, AI, 3D printing, drones, computer science, physics, programming, materials science, USB, UWB, Android, digital photography, science Credentials I've been covering the technology industry for 24 years and was a science writer for five years before that. I've got deep expertise in microprocessors, digital photography, computer hardware and software, internet standards, web technology, and other dee
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Sun Microsystems has begun beta testing of Solaris 9, the next version of its Unix operating system, due in 2002.

Sun calls Solaris the company's "crown jewel," because it's key to staving off competitors such as IBM, Intel and Microsoft. Sun, the top Unix server seller, according to researcher IDC, has an enviable list of partners whose software runs on Solaris machines.

The new beta version is available for Sun's UltraSparc chips and 32-bit Intel chips, but Sun itself sells only UltraSparc systems. Facing competition from Linux, Sun began offering Solaris for free on servers with eight or fewer CPUs.

The software comes with a variety of improvements over Solaris 8, according to documentation.

New features include:

• Live Upgrade, which lets an administrator install the new operating system onto an unused portion of a storage system then reboot the server to the new version. If it doesn't work right, the administrator can boot back to the older version.

• Detailed control over computing resources. The new Solaris improves how software processes can share CPUs. It also lets administrators monitor or change how resources are being used.

• Support for the latest version 5 of the Kerberos authentication system.

• The ability to write data or audio CDs.

• The ability to install only a minimum set of Solaris features.