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Running GNU/Linux on the Sun - 8 August 2005 A while back I bought several Sun Ultra 5 workstations on eBay. The Ultra 5 and Ultra 10 systems are excellent systems upon which to run Linux, as they were built to be nearly identical, and have fairly common hardware. For instance, the on-board video uses an ATI Rage controller, the hard drives and CDROMs use an IDE interface, and they came with a conventional 15-pin D-sub video output. This makes them a good first project for someone who would like to install GNU/Linux on a non-x86-based system.Why would someone want to do this? Well, there is always the learning experience to be had. It does demonstrate more than the average geek chops. But beyond that, it helps reduce the "monoculture" of the internet, in that many attacks which are designed to break into an x86 box will fail when faced with a 64-bit big-endian processor. OK, the best reason to do this is because it is fun. Another reason to choose a Sun Ultra 5 or Ultra 10 is that they are dirt cheap on auction sites such as eBay. These systems were made from about 1998 to 2001, and are being taken out of service in droves right now, which has driven the price to typically less than US$100 for a working system. This makes it nearly as inexpensive as a little Linksys net appliance. Geek toys can be rather affordable. Besides, this is a 64-bit processor system which can hold up to either 512MB (Ultra 5) or 1GB (Ultra 10) of memory, and was a fairly high end desktop system for its time. Max it out for memory, put a larger 7200 rpm hard drive in it, and it is still a pleasure to work with. So, as I develop the pages, they will be linked below: Valentine - a Sun Ultra 5 running Debian GNU/Linux FreeIO,
FreeIO.org, Flapjack, Cornbread, Grits, Juice, Toast, Donut, and
Biscuit are
trademarks of Diehl Martin.
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