Sun brews stronger cuppa in Asia

In a bid to rattle Microsoft's stronghold on the desktop, Sun Microsystems recently launched a Windows substitute aimed at businesses looking to trim software licensing costs as a result of growing frustration with the former's patchy security track record.

Dubbed the Sun Java Desktop System, formerly known as Mad Hatter, the product was showcased at the annual SunNetwork conference in San Francisco last month. The company's latest PC operating system (OS) is powered by a Linux backbone and comes bundled with open source programs to replace common Microsoft applications such as Internet Explorer, Outlook and Office.

Sun's Windows contender comes installed with a GNOME desktop client, the Mozilla Web browser, and Ximian's Evolution, an open-source e-mail application (See Figure A), in addition to its latest StarOffice 7 productivity suite.

Figure A

Licensing costs for the Sun Java Desktop System varies by country but in Singapore, the bundle will be on sale in December for a flat fee of S$211 (US$122) per desktop. For companies that have bought into Sun's Java Enterprise System (previously called Orion)--a new collection of server software-- pricing for the desktop package will be halved to S$105 (US$61) per employee.

According to a Sun statement, its desktop alternative delivers "dramatic cost savings of up to 75 percent compared to alternatives", but the company did not elaborate on the methodology it used for deriving this claim.

While the new desktop offering may not be the "radical breakthrough" in a product sense as described by Sun executives during its Asian preview, the launch does mark a much-improved attempt at providing users with a more viable substitute to Windows and Microsoft Office.

These advances are crucial if the firm plans to garner a decent share of the desktop market as its previous attempts seemed to have yielded little rewards.

A few years back, Sun was one of the few powers behind the thin-client approach to computing, offering minimalist boxes called Sun Rays for office workers with less complex computing demands.

Sun Rays are essentially networked terminals which rely on the server for processing and are by themselves incapable of running local programs. This push did little to chip away Microsoft's desktop stranglehold as the professed cost benefits were subsequently offset by declining PC prices.

The Sun Java Desktop System, however, takes a slightly different route. The open source OS can be installed on a normal PC and be used to run third-party applications.

Unlike the Sun Ray which is Sun-branded, Sun said it will partner PC makers this time round to pre-install the Java Desktop System with their business offerings. While no such partnerships were announced at the time of launch, Sun's director of software sales in Asia South Terence Ng hinted several alliances could be in the pipeline. "These are definitely the big boys," Ng said .

Java inside
At first glance, the GUI (Graphical User Interface) of the Sun Java Desktop System is reminiscent of the very OS it is trying to displace (See Figure B). Right down to the taskbar, screen icons and navigation, Sun's new offering bears a striking likeness to older Microsoft products like Windows 9x and 2000.

Figure B

According to Sun, this resemblance is deliberate and part of its strategy to mitigate the difficulty of moving to an "alien" OS.

"We find that one of the biggest obstacles for users to migrate to a new OS is unfamiliarity with the new user interface," explained Liang Seng Quee, an IT solution architect with Sun Microsystems Singapore.

The Linux distribution is based on SuSE Desktop 1.0 while its desktop interface is a tweaked version of GNOME 2.3.6. It comes bundled with StarOffiice 7, Sun's latest suite of products for common tasks like word processing, presentations and spreadsheets.

Sun executives said StarOffice 7 has improved interoperability with Microsoft Office file formats such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint as well as the ability to save to other file formats such as Adobe PDF and Macromedia Flash.

"For example, users can save their presentations in Flash format so the receiving party will only need a Web browser to view the slides," said Liang.

These tweaks are all part of Sun's efforts to counter the lack of third party applications support when compared with Microsoft. Thus far, Sun's software alliances have been confined to a selected few like Adobe, Computer Associates and RealNetworks.

Users will still have to rely on software emulation to run other Windows-based programs, Liang said. He also admitted that users who require more advanced functionalities such as complex spreadsheet calculations will still have to rely on Microsoft's products.

"We are targeting this at office workers who don’t have complex requirements such customer service staff at call centers ," Liang added.

Beyond productivity, e-mail and Web browsing tools, Sun has also included applications for PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) synching and instant messaging. Sun brews stronger cuppa in Asia
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Will enterprises bite?
Despite the improvements, Sun is in for an uphill battle. "It's going to be tough for Sun to make much headway against Microsoft in desktop computing," Michael Gartenberg, an analyst with U.S.-based marker research firm Jupiter Media, told CNET News.com.

According to Gartenberg, Mad Hatter is more likely to be a replay of earlier failed Sun attempts to crack into the desktop computer market with the network computer and with Java workstations.

"For organizations, the question of interoperability with hardware and software is going to be an inhibitor," Gartenberg said, pointing out that most applications are developed for Windows. "It's tough to assure flawless compatibility with Microsoft document file formats; hardware support arrives for Windows often long before other operating systems; and it's expensive to switch operating systems."

Aside from issues of third-party support and interoperability, Sun's strategy also appears to assume that Microsoft will stay inert against its looming competition. Judging from the Redmond-Wash.-based software maker's track record to curb previous open source movements, it is highly unlikely that Microsoft will remain at status quo.

A recent case in point--Thailand. A month after the Thai government announced a drive to increase computer ownership by offering low-cost, Linux-based PCs and laptops to the masses in May, Microsoft joined the project a month later by significantly slashing the prices of its Windows XP and Office products.

While the success of Sun's latest desktop strategy remains to be seen, some companies have already been lured by the promise of lowered licensing prices against the backdrop of the global economic gloom.

In a bid to lower its dependence on Microsoft and to reduce overall IT spending, Telstra, Australia's largest telco, is currently evaluating Sun's Linux desktop.

According to published reports, Telstra is conducting a total cost of ownership study to determine the merits of a Sun/open-source platform versus Microsoft for desktop applications. The review is scheduled for completion in November.

By running a dual-platform environment of Windows and non-Microsoft applications, Telstra is hoping to shave at least 50 percent off its AU$1.5 billion (US$1.02 billion) annual IT budget.

Telstra, an existing Sun customer, has already signed up for the Java Enterprise System's flat-fee structure for a three year-period, said Keith Garelja, Sun Microsystems regional manager for software solutions in Australia.

Fran Foo is ZDNet Australia's features editor.