Sun Microsystems Inc has moved to eliminate one of the key differentiators between its Solaris Unix and Windows NT with the announcement of an agreement today with InstallShield Software Corp to provide the first point and click graphical method of installing Solaris applications, which until now have been installed using command line scripts. InstallShield, which the company claims is used by at least 90 of the top 100 Windows independent software vendors to install their applications either to Windows-based PCs or over the web, has had a Java version of its product out for more than a year – it’s currently on version 2.01. The two companies have taken some of the Java classes in that product, added Sun’s RMI remote method invocation Java-to- Java distributed communications technology plus some other internet technology and produced a software development kit which will be available for download from Sun today. Sun is calling this early access version of Solaris Web Start Wizards and says it will lead to the technology being included in both upcoming versions of InstallShield’s Java Edition. Version 2.1 is expected within a couple of months – as well as the next version of Solaris, which is referred to internally as 2.7, but has not been given a final name yet beyond Solaris foundation next generation. That is due some time in the fall. Solaris will be the first Unix platform for which InstallShield’s tool has been adapted, although of course its Java version can install applications to any platform that has a Java virtual machine. The Solaris version, like the Java version, will have the same look and feel as the Windows version and it will add some Solaris-specific distributed application and configuration technologies from both companies. At the time as that release of Solaris, Sun will also have co-packaged Solaris applications available from third parties that will use InstallShield as their method of installation, whether locally or over the internet. Solaris version 2.6 included Web Start, a browser-based installer for the operating system and bundled applications – this builds on that and expands it to all application developers, says Sun. Eventually it could be used to install the OS itself. The SDK is at http://www.sun.com/solaris/webstart.
