The Sun Java Desktop System, Release 2 Arrives

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Kammie Kayl
May 2004

Today, Sun releases Java Desktop System, Release 2, the next version of Sun's affordable, comprehensive, and secure enterprise-class desktop solution. More cost-effective than Windows, the Java Desktop System is an enterprise desktop solution that works with your existing infrastructure. The fully integrated desktop solution ships with a client desktop, including an office productivity suite, email, calendar, browser, instant messaging tools, and more. It also includes developer and system management tools for remote administration in a single package.

Here you can see the System Tools menu within the Sun Java Desktop System, Release 2. Click to Enlarge

This article has the following sections which address the various aspects of the Java Desktop System:

Key Features

Desktop
Developer
System Administrator
How to Buy
Resources

This section describes the major features available within the Sun Java Desktop System, separated by the categories, Desktop Features, Developer Tools and System Management Tools:

The Sun Java Desktop System requires users to log in. Click to Enlarge

Desktop Features

• A GNOME Desktop Environment
• StarOffice Productivity Suite
• Mozilla Web Browser
• Evolution Mail Directory and Calendar Clients
• Instant Messaging support for multiple services
• Linux operating system
• Java System Update Services
• Globalization, Internationalization and Localization Support

Developer Tools

• Java 2 Standard Edition (J2SE) v1.4.2_04, including the Java SDK
• Sun Java Studio Standard 5 update 1 Technology Preview
• NetBeans IDE Version 3.6

System Management Tools

• The Java Desktop System Configuration Manager
• Sun Control Station 2.1
• Remote Desktop Takeover

The GNOME Input Method Language Engine (GIMLET) is a new feature to this release that lets you change the language input from the keyboard, to change for example, from English to Japanese. Click to Enlarge

The desktop environment for the Java Desktop System is based on the GNOME desktop environment, and comes with an extensive set of tools and utilities including a Sun-branded look and feel. Users unfamiliar with GNOME will find that it provides a modern, colorful and intuitive graphical user interface (GUI) that makes it easy to locate documents, access menus, launch applications, and personalize their work environment.

StarOffice Productivity Suite Click to Enlarge

StarOffice 7, a full-function office productivity suite, is bundled into the Java Desktop System. It offers advanced applications for word processing, printing to PDF, developing spreadsheets, making presentations, creating graphics, editing photos, publishing to the Web, and managing data from relational databases. StarOffice is also interoperable with Microsoft Office. It can read and write Microsoft Office file formats or it can store data in native XML-based open file formats.

Mozilla Web Browser Click to Enlarge

The Mozilla web browser, a spam-free browser, is bundled in the Java Desktop System and can run any web-based application. Some very useful additions provided by Sun are preinstalled/preconfigured web browser plugins for Adobe Acrobat PDF documents, RealPlayer streaming media, and Macromedia Flash animations. It is also equipped with built-in privacy and security, and protection against junk mail and pop-up ads. Another favorite feature is tabbed browsing.

Programming Java applets for the web can be no fun without a web browser that supports them out of the box. Mozilla on the Java Desktop System is preconfigured to support Java applets with the Sun standard JVM. This feature helps you quickly develop, test and run Java applets and applications.

Java Desktop System comes with Instant Messaging support for AIM, ICQ, Yahoo IM, IRC and Jabber IM networks via the Open Source GAIM client as well as a client for Sun Java System Instant Messaging.

Evolution Mail Directory and Calendar Client Click to Enlarge

Evolution is the award-winning personal and workgroup information management solution, and comes with Java Desktop System. The software seamlessly integrates email, calendaring, meeting scheduling, contact management, and task lists, in one powerful, fast, and easy-to-use application. Workgroup information can be synchronized and managed by using the connector to the Sun ONE Calendar and Messaging Servers. Evolution is also powerful collaboration software that connects to popular corporate communications architectures like Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Notes, and other messaging systems. Evolution supports a broad range of leading Linux distributions and UNIX variants.

The Java Desktop System includes a Linux operating system, based on SuSE SLED. Linux is an operating system that's built on open source and open standards and is considered by many to be a flavor of UNIX. It consists of the Linux kernel (core operating system), and other utility programs. Because of its robustness and availability, Linux has won popularity in the open source community and among many commercial application developers and enterprises seeking a secure, inexpensive solution.

Though not immune from viruses, Linux desktops such as Java Desktop System are less frequent targets, due in part to a superior security architecture, notably the inability of users to modify system files without root access.

The Java Desktop System Update Service will request the software's serial number when users query for updates. Click to Enlarge Here is a screen shot of the Java Desktop System Update Service in the process of installing update packages. You can see by the intuitive user interface how easily user can obtain system updates. Click to Enlarge

Future versions of the Java Desktop System will extend platform support to the Solaris SPARC and x86 platforms.

This screen shot demonstrates the Java System Update Service with available updates for the user to download. Click to Enlarge

The Java SUS function is even more evidence that the Java Desktop System can help you do more with less. It helps lower your business costs and reduces the complexities of desktop management. The system is less prone to viruses and worms, and comes from a company that has the software and support breadth to scale to your business needs.

Within the Java Desktop System desktop client, the language support is as follows:

Desktop Software Localization includes the following language support:

At login, Java Desktop System allows you to select a language for your session use. Click to Enlarge

• English
• French
• German
• Italian
• Swedish
• Spanish
• Simplified Chinese
• Traditional Chinese
• Korean
• Japanese
• Brazilian Portuguese (UI only)

Developer Tools includes the following language support:

• English
• Japanese (exclusive of Net Beans IDE 3.6)
• Simplified Chinese (exclusive of Net Beans IDE 3.6)

System Management Tools Localization includes the following language support:

• English
• German
• French
• Simplified Chinese
• Traditional Chinese
• Korean
• Japanese

When you purchase the Sun Java Desktop System, Release 2, as a bonus, you will receive the Java 2 Standard Edition (J2SE) v1.4.2_04, including the Software Development Kit (SDK), the Sun Java Studio Standard 5 update 1 Technology Preview, and the NetBeans IDE 3.6.

The Java Desktop System comes with J2SE v1.4.2_02. There are two principal products in the J2SE platform family: Java 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (JRE) and Java 2 SDK, Standard Edition. The JRE provides the Java APIs, Java virtual machine, and other components necessary to run applets and applications written in the Java programming language. It is also the foundation for the technologies in the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) for enterprise software development and deployment. The JRE does not contain tools and utilities such as compilers or debuggers for developing applets and applications.

The Java 2 SDK is a superset of the JRE, and contains everything that is in the JRE, plus tools such as the compilers and debuggers necessary for developing applets and applications. Read the Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition Platform Overview for more details about the J2SE platform.

Along with this version of J2SE, the Java Media Framework (JMF) is bundled together with an Ogg Vorbis (audio format) and a MP3 codec (in addition to the standard codecs bundled with JMF). This system also accommodates these other multimedia formats such as MPEG, JPEG, AVI, MIDI, and MP3.

The J2SE version that is bundled with the Java Desktop System has extended the Swing GTK+ look and feel functionality. This lets you develop Java applications that take on the Java Desktop System's native look and feel or the native look and feel for whichever operating system will be running the Java application. You can switch on GTK+ look and feel in your Java applications by using the method, UIManager.setLookAndFeel. For complete details on how to set your own look and feel in your Java applications, see the Swing tutorial lesson, "How to Set the Look and Feel."

Another key component to desktop Java technology is Java Web Start. Java Web Start technology lets you run standalone Java applications with a single click over the network. It also ensures the most current version of the application will be deployed, as well as the correct version of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE).

Sun Java Studio Standard 5 update 1 Technology Preview (formerly Sun ONE Studio) is a set of tools that can help you develop and deploy Java technology components and applications--from web services to wireless. Based on the acclaimed open-source NetBeans Tools Platform, Java Studio Standard includes dozens of Sun and third-party authored plug-ins; which makes for extended functionality of this tool. This updated release also includes a Web Application Framework which helps accelerate your Java application development.

Java Studio Standard provides another key benefit: numerous freely available PDF tutorials explaining how to use it for building web applications, web services, Enterprise JavaBeans components, J2EE applications, and many more. There is even a “Getting Started Guide available here.

Improved Ant support within the NetBeans IDE Version 3.6 Click to Enlarge

NetBeans IDE 3.6 also delivers tightly integrated web application deployment and debugging using Apache Tomcat 5 and the Sun Java System Application Server, Platform Edition 8.

For more NetBeans information and resources, read the article, NetBeans IDE 3.6 Released.

This screenshot of the Java Desktop System Configuration Manager shows the left side of the console listing the users and hosts while the right side lists the configuration policy tree and configured settings. Here you can specify settings for each user as well as access rules for each desktop software application. Click to Enlarge

Here's an example of the Conguration Manager's ability to specify settings within a specific software application. This one is for StarOffice macro use. Click to Enlarge

System Management Tools

This version of the Sun Java Desktop System includes three comprehensive tools for centralized user desktop administration and deployment:

• The Java Desktop System Configuration Manager, Release 1 lets you define groups of users and the policies for access rights and settings.



• The Sun Control Station, 2.1, is ideal for remotely performing desktop provisioning, management, and software updating. Developed in-house by Sun this easy-to-use interface performs dependency checking, health monitoring and asset management.
• Remote Desktop Takeover allows for remote administration including viewing and interacting with users' desktop displays to help, guide and troubleshoot. These remote desktop takeover capabilities can simplify system troubleshooting from a central location. It can also help save time with automated inventory management and performance monitoring of the desktop systems.

This is Remote Desktop Takeover in the process of connecting to a remote computer. Click to Enlarge	This is what Remote Desktop Takeover console looks like when it's connected to a remote computer. Click to Enlarge

For more details on the Java Desktop System's newly released system management tools, read the article, “Sun's Java Desktop System Release 2: Simplified Desktop Management” by Dirk Grobler and Matt Ruetz.

This article has shown that the Java Desktop System is a compelling offering that provides customers with a low cost, secure, easy-to-use, fully-featured desktop system. Its newly-bundled system management tools can save time, cut costs, and increase productivity and security by enabling system administrators to centrally deploy and manage diverse desktop environments.

Visit the Java Desktop System, "Get the Software" page for complete details on how you can invest in your future and buy this software system.

Get 50 percent off the price through December 2, 2004. This offer is open to any customer interested in replacing their existing desktop with Sun Java Desktop System. There is no requirement to submit a proof of purchase or license.

Learn more about Sun Java Desktop System by visiting the following:
Java Desktop System Information
Java Desktop System Control Station Information
Java Desktop System FAQ
Sun Java Desktop System Course Catalog
Java Desktop System Developer Community on Java.Net
Sun's New Java Desktop System