Java Desktop System, briefly known as OpenSolaris Desktop, is a

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desktop environment developed first by

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and then by

Oracle Corporation Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation headquartered in Austin, Texas. In 2020, Oracle was the third-largest software company in the world by revenue and market capitalization. The company sells da ...

after the 2010 Oracle acquisition of Sun. Java Desktop System is available for

Solaris Solaris may refer to: Arts and entertainment Literature, television and film * ''Solaris'' (novel), a 1961 science fiction novel by Stanisław Lem ** ''Solaris'' (1968 film), directed by Boris Nirenburg ** ''Solaris'' (1972 film), directed by ...

and was once available for Linux. The Linux version was discontinued after Solaris was released as open source software in 2005. Java Desktop System aims to provide a system familiar to the average computer user with a full suite of office productivity software such as an office suite, a web browser, email, calendaring, and instant messaging. Despite being known as the Java Desktop System, it is not actually written in Java. Rather, it is built around a tweaked version of

GNOME A gnome is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, first introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and later adopted by more recent authors including those of modern fantasy literature. Its characte ...

along with other common free software projects, which are written mostly in C and C++. The name reflected Sun's promotion of the product as an outlet for corporate users to deploy software written for the Java platform.

Versions

Sun first bundled a preview release of GNOME 1.4 on a separate CD for Solaris 8. JDS version 2 included: * Java *

(using the Blueprint theme) * StarOffice * Mozilla * Evolution * MP3 and CD player * Java Media Framework's Java Media Player *

Gaim Pidgin (formerly named Gaim) is a free and open-source multi-platform instant messaging client, based on a library named libpurple that has support for many instant messaging protocols, allowing the user to simultaneously log in to various s ...

multi-service instant messaging * RealPlayer JDS Release 2 was available for Solaris and for the

SuSE SUSE ( , ) is a German-based multinational open-source software company that develops and sells Linux products to business customers. Founded in 1992, it was the first company to market Linux for enterprise. It is the developer of SUSE Linux Ent ...

-based Linux distribution. JDS Release 3 was released in 2005. It was included with Solaris 10 — upon installation of Solaris, one has the choice of using either the

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or JDS. It was based on GNOME 2.6 and available only for the Solaris 10 platform.

OpenSolaris Desktop

OpenSolaris received its own version of the Java Desktop System. OpenSolaris Desktop was tied to the OpenSolaris operating system, and did not have its own release schedule. OpenSolaris Desktop 01 (released October 28, 2005) was based on GNOME 2.10 and OpenSolaris Desktop 02 (released December 23, 2005) was based on GNOME 2.12. The last version was released with the release of OpenSolaris 2009.6, and was based on Gnome 2.24. It also included Firefox 3.1, OpenOffice 3 and Sun VirtualBox. The OpenSolaris Desktop line of the Java Desktop System became defunct with the end of the OpenSolaris project.

Availability

With the end of the OpenSolaris project, JDS Release 3 is now the last release of the project on a currently supported operating system Solaris 10. Newer Solaris based operating systems have abandoned the Java Desktop System. Solaris 11 and projects based upon the OpenSolaris codebase such as

OpenIndiana OpenIndiana is a free and open-source illumos distribution Unix-derived System V SVR4 operating system, started as OpenSolaris continuation project. Forked from OpenSolaris after OpenSolaris was discontinued by Oracle Corporation, OpenIndiana ...

use a stock version of GNOME.

References

External links

Oracle Documentation

OS News review
December 2003
eWeek Review
December 2003 {{Sun Microsystems Desktop environments Java platform software Oracle software Sun Microsystems software Desktop environments based on GTK Free desktop environments GNOME Software forks

Versions

OpenSolaris Desktop

Availability

See also

References

External links