Sample: Chapter 18

Ten Best Web Sites

It goes without saying that one of the best places to explore Solaris resources, documentation, and product announcements is the official Sun Microsystems Web site at www.sun.com/. But there's a lot more on the Web, including three specific areas within the enormous Sun site that are well worth bookmarking in your browser.

Excellent Online Solaris Documentation

Compared to most Unix operating systems, Solaris is well documented with both the man pages and AnswerBook system included with the distribution. However, the Sun experts have spent a lot of time exploring, analyzing, fixing, and documenting just about every facet of every Solaris version, even earlier SunOS releases. You can access all of this information online, in an easy-to-browse layout, at: If you're running Solaris 9, click the Solaris 9 link upon entering the site to see information that applies to your version of the operating system. If you have a different version of the OS, you can find lots to explore here, too.

Big Iron Administration Assistance

You will inevitably have to do some sort of administration on your Solaris system. The Sun Big System Administration site is the best resource for administration information: The resources area and the discussions are worth noting. Some of the discussions on this site will blow your socks off with the authors levels of technical expertise, but others will offer a good venue for asking even rudimentary Solaris system administration questions.

More Sysadmin at Sys Admin Magazine

Sys Admin has long been one of the best magazines for a Unix system administrator, and it should be no surprise that the popular Solaris servers are a common topic of discussion and feature articles. On the Web, Sys Admin neatly organizes its Solaris material in an area called the Solaris Corner: The Solaris Administration "Best Practices" column is worth checking out. The author explores a variety of topics and offers thoughtful and oft-novel solutions to common sysadmin problems.

Small but Helpful Reference Site

A modest Web site, Everything Solaris offers valuable articles and tutorials, along with some neat free applications downloads and a discussion area: The same Web designer runs similar sites for Linux and Mac OS X, so if you're interested in comparing Solaris to these other popular Unix operating systems, they too can make for interesting reading.

Squeeze Solaris on the Intel Platform

One cool hidden capability of Solaris 9 is that it can be installed and run happily on an Intel-based personal computer. (And yes, even a slim laptop computer can run Solaris 9.) If you're interested in this option, the Solaris on Intel site is a great place to find information: Start by reading the extensive Frequently Asked Questions material. And consider signing up for the site's highly informative -- and sporadically busy -- mailing list for people trying to ensure that their Solaris 9 systems live on Intel systems happily and efficiently.

An Extensive Collection of Solaris Info

Stokely Consulting's Unix System Administrator's Resources site offers a ton of great information about Solaris and many other Unix operating systems, focused primarily -- but not exclusively -- on system administration. Be sure to check out the article about setting up and configuring e-mail so that it's secure and spam is minimized; look for it on the main page. Also don't miss the listing of Unix and system administration mailing lists.

Keep Up-To-Date on Solaris News

Solaris Central sports a wonderful design, and its main page is a log of news and coming events for the Solaris community. It's a great resource for every Solaris user, administrator or otherwise: Click the /sparc and /contrib links to see the many levels of information available on this site!

Cool, Sun-Endorsed Software

Although not the largest repository of Solaris-compatible software for your Sun computer, the Sun software download area is an excellent place to get well-tested applications like the latest version of the Java runtime environment, StarOffice, or the Sun ONE Application Server. To see what freeware is redistributed by Sun, visit

Even More Cool Solaris Software

The Sunfreeware site offers a repository of Solaris software, primarily from the GNU Project (www.gnu.org/). Specify which Solaris version you're running to see an extensive list of software packages available: As with the Sun documentation site, select your operating system and processor (for example, SPARC/Solaris 9) and then look through the somewhat cryptically named package list to see what's available.

Yet More Great Freeware!

Freeware4Sun offers an extensive list of downloadable software for your Solaris system. The site has a distinctive and rather funky appearance. You'll find specific areas for patches, software, GNOME, and even games! Check it out at: Don't miss its collection of documentation and helpful FAQ.