Sun Intros Linux Desktop As Part Of Project Mad Hatter

The Linux desktops will be built in the same factories that build desktops for Dell, with Sun just providing the plastic logo for the front, said Jonathan Schwartz, executive vice president for Sun's Software Group. "If you are reselling other people's technology, whether it's a banana or a computer, the only damage you can do to it is bruise it," he said. "You can't add a whole lot of value. So this PC ... is never going to enter a Sun factory."

The new client solution combines Java Card authentication, an open-source desktop software stack, and off-the-shelf hardware to allow a user access to his or her client system regardless of location.

"What we're announcing today is Project Mad Hatter, which is returning to our roots as a disruptive innovator," said Schwartz. "[We are leveraging the open-source desktop with GNOME, leveraging Star Office, Mozilla, Evolution, the Java platform with Java Card for military-grade security, to provide lowest-cost, standards-based open-file formats on an industry-standard application architecture."

Schwartz said there is now enough acceptance of Linux to drive out the major source of the cost of infrastructures, especially that related to the desktop and the proliferation of risky security technology on the server side.

Schwartz demonstrated Project Mad Hatter on both a Sun Ray client and the new Linux desktop, showing how he could plug a Java Card into the Sun Ray to work on one system, pull it out, plug into the Linux-based desktop, then continue where he left off.

Sun will focus Mad Hatter on users in cost-sensitive and security-sensitive areas such as call centers, retail banks and education, areas where PCs are under-utilized, said Schwartz. "If most of your time is spent in front of the browser, you're the target demographic," he said. "If you're spending most of your time writing [Visual Basic, you're not our target demographic."

Schwartz said the new architecture, scheduled to be available sometime next year, will require servers, software and clients from Sun, and will be charged similar to the telecom model, with an up-front fee and some type of fee afterwards.

The new Mad Hatter systems will be sold in chunks of 100 clients, and will be available through solution providers, said Schwartz. He estimated the five-year cost for 100 clients to be about $296,040, or $49.34 per user per month, compared with a similar system based on Dell PCs and servers, which he said has a five-year cost of about $1.02 million, or $169.93 per user per month.

Sun has nothing to lose with the new architecture, said Schwartz, as it has no relationship with Microsoft, and no PC business, but it does already have the server offering.

Liz Montalbano contributed to this story.