Roland Mainz sent me a note that Ksh93-integration update1 has been “putback” into Solaris 11 build 106.

Screenshots can be found here and the main project page here.

This updates ksh93 in OpenSolaris to a newer version, and adds new utilities such as a shell script compiler.

Sun xVM VirtualBox version 2.1 has been released, with a good number of enhancements and bugfixes.

Major enhancements include:

* Support for hardware virtualization (VT-x and AMD-V) on Mac OS X hosts
* Support for 64-bit guests on 32-bit host operating systems
* Added support for Intel Nehalem virtualization enhancements
* Experimental 3D acceleration via OpenGL
* Experimental LsiLogic and BusLogic SCSI controllers
* Full VMDK/VHD support including snapshots
* New NAT engine with significantly better performance, reliability and ICMP echo (ping) support
* New Host Interface Networking implementations for Windows and Linux hosts with easier setup (replaces TUN/TAP on Linux and manual bridging on Windows)

I’m in need of four 1G PC2700 or PC3200 DDR memory sticks so that I can get an Ultra 20 up and running here at SunHELP.

Update: Thanks to Jerry K. for his gracious donation that will enable me to buy four good 1G sticks from NewEgg.

Sun has released JavaFX version 1.0 today. It is currently only available on Windows.

Tim Bray has a good personal opinion piece on What Sun Should Do to improve its standing in the market.

Sun has announced its new offering of Sun Data Protection Services, “a new on-site service to help enable customers to remain compliant with internal corporate data erasure policies during the removal, redeployment or relocation of equipment containing sensitive data.”

In short, they’ll securely erase your hard disks and charge you for it.

Sun has announced that the WikiMedia Foundation will be using SunFire x4150 and x4500 servers along with StorageTek storage arrays to expand its infrastructure.

Update: Jonathan Schwartz has some thoughts on this announcement.

According to this press release, Sun is reorganizing due to the economy.

First, between 5,000 and 6,000 employees will be laid off. Second, three new business groups are being created - Application Platform Software, Systems Platforms, and Cloud Computing & Development Platforms.

Sun has relesed the Sun Storage 7000 series of unified storage systems. The systems use a “hybrid storage pool” consisting of solid state disks, hard disk drives, and RAM to improve performance over traditional HDD-only units.

The Sun Storage 7110 has 8GB of RAM and provides 2TB of storage in a 2U form factor.

The Sun Storage 7210 provides up to 44TB of storage in a 4U form factor.

The Sun Storage 7410 scales up to 576TB with multiple expansion arrays.

In addition, Sun has released a simulator for the units as a VMWare virtual machine image.

Today Sun announced its final results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2009, ending September 28, 2008.

Revenues for the first quarter of fiscal 2009 were $2.990 billion, a decrease of 7.1 percent as compared with $3.219 billion for the first quarter of fiscal 2008. Total gross margin as a percent of revenues was 40.2, a decrease of 8.3 percentage points, as compared with the first quarter of fiscal 2008.

Net loss for the first quarter of fiscal 2009 on a GAAP basis was $1.677 billion, or $(2.24) per share on a diluted basis, as compared with a net income of $89 million, or $0.10 per share, for the first quarter of fiscal 2008. GAAP net loss per share includes a $1.445 billion non-cash charge for goodwill impairment. It also includes a restructuring charge of approximately $63 million pursuant to the restructuring that commenced in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008.

On a non-GAAP basis, net loss for the first quarter of fiscal 2009 was $65 million, or $(0.09) per share on a diluted basis, as compared with a non-GAAP net income of $285 million, or $0.32 per share, for the first quarter of fiscal 2008. Non-GAAP net loss per share excludes amortization of acquisition-related intangibles, stock-based compensation, restructuring and related impairment of long-lived assets, the goodwill impairment charge, net gain on equity investments and the tax effect of these non-GAAP adjustments.

Sun ended the quarter with a cash and marketable debt securities balance of $3.121 billion and generated cash flow from operations for the first quarter of fiscal 2009 of $148 million.

Jonathan Schwartz has a weblog entry explaining the results.

Matt Fredette’s TME (The Machine Emulator) can emulate a Sun-2, Sun-3, or SPARCstation 2 system and run NetBSD or old versions of SunOS.

Andy Bechtolsheim is leaving Sun for start-up Arista. Arista is funded by Andy Bechtolsheim and competes directly with Cisco for networking equipments. More details are located here. An article on CNET indicated Andy Bechtolsheim will remain with Sun, on a part-time basis, more information located at CNET’s site.

Sun today reported preliminary results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2009, ending September 29, 2008.

Sun expects to report revenues for the first quarter of fiscal 2009 in the range of $2.950 to $3.050 billion, as compared with $3.219 billion for the first quarter of fiscal 2008. Total gross margin as a percent of revenues for the first quarter of fiscal 2009 is expected to be in the range of 39 to 41 percent.

Sun anticipates reporting GAAP net loss per share, before the impact of the potential goodwill impairment charge discussed below, for the first quarter of fiscal 2009 in the range of $(0.25) to $(0.35). GAAP net loss per share includes a restructuring charge of approximately $60 million pursuant to the restructuring announced on August 1, 2008. On a non-GAAP basis, Sun expects to report net loss per share in the range of $(0.02) to $(0.12). Non-GAAP net loss per share excludes amortization of acquisition-related intangibles, stock-based compensation, restructuring and related impairment of long-lived assets (including the potential goodwill impairment charge discussed below), net gain or loss on equity investments and the tax effect of these non-GAAP adjustments.

Based on a combination of factors, including the current economic environment, Sun’s operating results, and a sustained decline in Sun’s market valuation, the Company has concluded that it is likely that the fair value of one or more of its reporting units has been reduced below its carrying value. As a result, Sun is currently conducting an interim goodwill impairment analysis to determine the required amount of the non-cash impairment charge, if any. As of September 28, 2008, prior to the impact of this potential non-cash impairment charge, Sun’s total goodwill balance was $3.2 billion of which $1.8 billion relates to reporting units that may be impaired.

“Sun and its customers are seeing the impact of a slowing economy. We believe we are positioned to offer the kinds of products that can radically help customers reduce expenditures for their infrastructure from Open Storage to Solaris-based Chip Multi-Threading (CMT) systems to offering the most eco-efficient systems in the market,” said Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Sun Microsystems.

Sine Nomine Associates has completed their port of OpenSolaris to IBM System Z mainframe computers.

System requirements:

* A z9-or-later System z processor
* z/VM 5.3 or later
* A Layer 2 VSWITCH on your z/VM system
* Approximately 4000 cylinders of 3390 DASD (plus another 3390-3 used during installation as temporary storage)
* APAR 64666 and corresponding PTF UM32414 to enable Diag 2A8 support for the virtual OSA

The project’s source code is freely available as well.

According to this article from internetnews.com, Sun has distributed new firmware for the Sun Ray clients. With the new firmware update, the video processing will take place on the client device instead of the server.