Features of the Sun Solaris Operating System
Oracle based the Sun Solaris Operating System on technologies developed by AT&T and Sun Microsystems, the developers of the BSD operating system and the Java programming language. Oracle designed Solaris for businesses with a small operating budget and low-end machines that require a secure UNIX-based operating system. Solaris provides many of the same features of other operating systems, but also possesses several unique features.
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Networking
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The networking capabilities of the Sun Solaris operating system provide the platform for data transmission over a variety of protocols and the addition of new technologies. Newer versions of Solaris support voice-over-Internet protocol, or VoIP, without the need for additional third-party applications. Solaris gives native support to wireless and high-throughput networks such as 10Gps Ethernet. Older programs installed on a Solaris system are able to use these diverse networking methods. This is due, in part, to Solaris's networking stack, which provides backwards compatibility. Solaris also includes more advanced networking features such as hardware off-loading and the ability to add new protocols. Solaris is IPv6 ready, which makes the operating system ready for future changes in the processes for sending and receive data over a computer network.
Security
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Zoning is one of the main security features in place on the Sun Solaris operating system. By splitting access to the internal functions of the operating system into a series of zones, Sun Solaris significantly reduces the threat level. A notorious type of malware known as a root kit attempts to run its code on the operating system by using the privileges that only belong to the superuser or root. Depending on the settings in place, a user in a particular zone may only have a limited number of actions that he can perform. This, in effect, makes system compromise much more difficult to obtain. The system administrator can add devices and networks to the zoning system for added security.
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User Interface
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Upon installation of Solaris with a graphic user interface, or GUI, the desktop environment presents to the user with several immediately recognizable features. The layout structure is similar to other common operating systems, such as Microsoft's Windows or Apple's OS X series. Solaris designers constructed the desktop environment with the programming language Java, and Solaris features Internet browsers, media players and an office suite.
Solaris Containers
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The hardware resources on a computer, i.e. the CPU cycles and memory usage, are valuable assets. Managing these assets is important for performance and security. Oracle Solaris Containers play an important role in managing the hardware usage of a particular application. If the system administrator wishes to limit a specific application to a limited number of threads or processor time, Oracle Solaris Containers can watch an application and enforce the settings put in place by the administrator.
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