Sun Ultra 20 sets sights on Java shops

When most IT people think of hardware from Sun Microsystems, they likely think of massively parallel servers, such as its giant Sun Fire systems.However, the company got its start as a maker of technical workstations, and the Ultra 20 workstation, an entry-level x64 system, reflects that lineage.

Priced at $895 with a single-core 1.8GHz AMD Opteron processor and 512KB RAM, the Ultra 20 is suitable for three audiences: organizations looking for an inexpensive desktop PC that can run Solaris 10 x64; software developers standardizing on the Sun software tool chain; and other professionals seeking hands-on experience with Solaris. If you’re not among those groups, there’s not much reason to consider this workstation.

Back to Basics

The Ultra 20 hardware itself is fairly prosaic. The chassis is a 17-inch-high silvery box that looks similar to a cheap PC clone; Sun’s traditional attractive, curvy industrial design cues are nowhere to be found. Inside, the Ultra 20 is mainly empty space, consisting of a small motherboard with three PCI-Express slots, four PCI slots, a bay for a DVD drive, and a couple of internal bays for Serial ATA drives.

The Ultra 20 uses one single-core AMD 100-series Opteron processor, ranging in speed from 1.8GHz to 2.6GHz; this version of the processor can be used only in single-chip systems. Sun doesn’t support dual-core Opteron processors or multiple chips in the Ultra 20 but has offered them in older workstations such as the Sun Java Workstation W2100z and includes them in the forthcoming Ultra 40 workstation.

The motherboard contains an integrated ATI Rage XL graphics controller with 8MB of video RAM, which connects to a standard VGA analog monitor. Its maximum resolution of 1,024 pixels by 768 pixels on a flat-panel display may be fine for industrial applications, but it’s far too small for developers, IT professionals, or knowledge-workers.

Still, this bargain-basement video system helps Sun maintain its market-friendly $895 base price point, as does the 80GB hard drive and inadequate base memory of non-ECC (error-correcting code) RAM. Developers should not consider anything below the $1,395 version of the Ultra 20 that I tested, which comes with a 2.2GHz processor, 1GB ECC RAM, and an NVidia Quadro NVS 280 card with DVI connectors and 64MB video RAM.

As for the software, the Ultra 20 comes with Solaris 10 x64, which is the best true Unix for a desktop environment. It’s fast, it’s stable, and it takes advantage of the 64-bit Opteron processor.

Sun also includes a full set of its development software, based on the NetBeans open source framework. It includes Java Studio Creator, for building JavaServer Faces-based active Web apps; Java Studio Enterprise, for building J2EE-based desktop and server apps; and Sun Studio 10, for building C/C++ and Fortran applications that run on Solaris. Also on the machine is Star Office, Sun’s general productivity suite.

The quality of Sun’s Java tools, which I used during this review, is high, in terms of fit and finish, responsiveness, and code quality. Java Studio Creator and Java Studio Enterprise are closely coupled with Sun’s Java Enterprise System deployment platform, and the latest versions do an outstanding job with UML modeling, XML editing, and working with JSPs. They also have excellent collaboration features for team development. However, if you want to use extensions or plug-ins specific to other app server platforms, such as IBM WebSphere, Oracle, or JBoss, or you want to take advantage of other non-Sun technologies such as the Eclipse ecosystem or Struts, you’re out of luck.

Usability Stumbling Blocks

This review would not be complete without discussing the Ultra 20 from a strict usability perspective. To be honest — and speaking as an expert user comfortable with Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux — the learning curve and frustration with Solaris 10 x64 is high.

Yes, Solaris is undeniably solid, fast, and bulletproof. But installing a printer is an exercise in frustration. The OS does not find network resources and configure the correct drivers automatically. And although Sun Update Manager downloads and installs patches and upgrades, it’s much harder to use than with Windows and Mac OS X. The documentation is unacceptably meager, both within the OS and online.

In a nutshell, Solaris 10 is a workstation OS for technical experts or for users who won’t venture outside a preconfigured set of apps — but not for anyone in between.

Looking at the Ultra 20 as a developer workstation, it’s an attractive offering for developers who want to use Sun tools to build apps for Sun platforms: The price is right, and Sun bundles full support. Just stay away from the base configuration, which is too underpowered to be useful, and bear in mind that although this platform is sturdy and robust, it’s not easy to use.