Sun's Linux Project Janus

Project Janus will provide customers who have mixed Solaris OS and Linux environments broader access to applications written for both operating systems.

'Sun's commitment to Linux and the Linux community is stronger than ever,' said John Loiacono, Sun's executive vice president for software. 'Our strategy has always been to provide the very best interoperability for heterogeneous environments.

'Now customers can leverage all the breakthrough attributes of the Solaris 10 operating system with existing investments in the Linux applications at a price lower than what they are paying for Linux. There is no longer a reason to make sacrifices when choosing between Linux and Solaris.'

Project Janus was demonstrated at LinuxWorld in August. This groundbreaking new technology is one of more than 600 new features in the Solaris 10 OS.

Unlike Linux emulations that act as interpreters of the Linux code for other platforms, Project Janus will enable the Solaris OS to run Linux applications natively on x86 platforms, greatly enhancing performance.

Sun simplifies Linux compatibility

Project Janus is designed to meet a variety of interoperability needs: IT managers have greater efficiencies through a more interoperable Solaris OS/Linux environment; developers can use a single workstation/server to develop, test, and deploy for both environments; and system administrators can transfer common administration skills between platforms.

When used with N1(tm) Grid Container software, customers can create a virtual Linux environment on a Solaris OS system, isolating Solaris OS and Linux applications from each other and from system faults. Project Janus is designed for compatibility with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.

Additional highlights

In addition, customers can run Linux applications with all the benefits of Solaris 10 OS, including a powerful tool for analyzing and diagnosing problems in real-time (Dynamic Tracing), a breakthrough approach to service availability with online error detection and auto recovery (Predictive Self Healing), a self-managing OS file system technology that provides 16 billion times more capacity than current file systems (Dynamic File System), and many others.

Security: Customers running Linux applications can benefit from key Solaris OS security advantages, including Solaris Rights Management, Process Rights Management and N1 Grid Container software. These capabilities help enable rigorous policy-based access, distribution, and execution of processes and services.

Lower costs: Increased Solaris OS/Linux interoperability can enable administration of multiple platforms with common skill sets, cross-platform development efficiencies, and overall migration economies without acquiring additional hardware.