Solaris Express Developer Edition 1/08

In addition to Project Indiana Developer Preview 2, Solaris users can now rejoice over the next release in the Solaris Express Developer Edition family. SXDE 1/08 is the quarterly update to Sun's next-generation Solaris Operating System that is built from the latest OpenSolaris Nevada technologies. This first SXDE release of 2008 brings a host of new features for the developer such as NetBeans 6.0 and the GlassFish v2 application server. Even for those that aren't developers, SXDE 1/08 brings new features further down on the Solaris stack such as the Sun xVM virtualization server with support for libvirt, support for the Intel 4965 wireless chipset with 802.11n capabilities, and a variety of new services.

While much of this new work can already be found in the recent Solaris Express Community Edition builds, Solaris Express Developer Edition is tested more scrupulously than the SXCE releases as it's only released every quarter and comes with support from Sun Microsystems (permitting you have one of their support subscriptions). Solaris Express Developer Edition 1/08 is based upon Solaris Express Community Edition Build 79b. In comparison, SXDE 9/07 had shipped with Build 70b. Our review on Solaris Express Developer Edition 9/07 can be read here.

Premiering in Solaris Express Developer Edition 9/07 was the Caiman installer that dramatically improved the Solaris installation experience. While OpenSolaris Indiana utilizes the Caiman installer as well, it's within the LiveCD GNOME desktop environment using the Caiman "Slim Install" mode. SXDE continues to use the Caiman installer in its traditional non-LiveCD mode. Between SXDE 9/07 and SXDE 1/08 there aren't any major changes to its installation mechanism. On the Caiman roadmap for later this year is the integration of the device detection tool and a driver update module along with character-based and command-line install modes.