Sun Solaris Express Developer Edition Gets Usability Makeover

New installer and installation support subscriptions get developers up and running quickly.

SANTA CLARA, Calif.- Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA), today announced new support subscriptions and enhanced graphical user interfaces to make Solaris Express Developer Edition software easier for developers to install and use. The new support offerings and usability enhancements in Solaris Express Developer Edition 9/07 software are designed to provide a faster route to productivity developing for the Solaris Operating System (OS), Java platform and Web 2.0 applications.

“At zero acquisition cost, and featuring easy installation on most x86 computers, Solaris Express Developer Edition is the modern, integrated platform for developing Solaris applications,” said Marc Hamilton, vice president of Solaris Marketing for Sun Microsystems. “With the new installer, we’re offering developers a significantly streamlined installation experience. The new service offering extends the value of that offering by now including install/configuration assistance for Solaris Express Developer Edition software, just as we do for the Solaris 10 OS.”

Improved Usability

Solaris Express Developer Edition 9/07 software offers the new Solaris installer, the first significant change to the installer since the release of Solaris 8, and represents a significant improvement to facilitate developer adoption of the Solaris OS. Also new to Solaris Express Developer Edition software is D-Light, the new GUI front end tool to dynamic tracing (DTrace.) This tool brings the tremendous advantages of DTrace’s system level performance measurement capabilities to a much wider developer audience. D-Light provides an extensible library of instruments that represent the latest advances of profiling technology, helping customers to quickly profile and peer into the runtime behavior of a program. Sun Studio 12 compilers and the NetBeans integrated development environment are installed automatically with Solaris Express Developer Edition software.

New Support Subscriptions

Customers can now get installation and configuration support for Solaris Express Developer Edition software and the Solaris 10 OS in a single subscription, at the Basic level of support for Solaris subscriptions and at no additional cost. By expanding support options, Sun offers services that scale with a company’s business. Developer support is still available through the Sun Developer Expert Assistance (DEA) service. Solaris Subscription with indemnification coverage is also available.

Improved Development Environment for Laptops

Additional enhancements include new wireless drivers and support for Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology (EIST) power management architecture. With EIST, Sun continues to show its focus on developers through the Solaris Express Developer Edition release by enhancing support for laptops, the development platform of choice for many developers.

To learn more, download Solaris Express Developer Edition software today, or order a free DVD media kit, visit http://developers.sun.com/sxde. For more on software, training, and support for the Solaris OS, visit http://sun.com/solaris.