Solaris is a high-performance Unix operating system from Sun Microsystems which can be installed either as a desktop OS or a server OS. It was released earlier this year as the most advanced OS yet in the Solaris product line, the creation of a massive development effort employing around 3,000 Sun Microsystems programmers.

Solaris 10's immense scalability means it can run everything from a single Intel processor PC to a server with dozens of processors. And with the fastest TCP/IP stack of any OS, Solaris 10 is built from the ground up for network applications. Its military-grade security and stability combine with advanced features like Predictive Self Healing and dTrace realtime system troubleshooting to make Solaris 10 the most advanced Unix OS in the world.

As part of its open source licensing model adoption, Sun Microsystems is pleased to release the Solaris 10 OS so everyone can experience the kind of OS that traditionally powers serious computing infrastructure. If you've ever wanted to try a big iron, battle-tested Unix instead of a Linux clone, this is the real deal. Best of all, it will run on most standard x86 PCs.

Please read the instructions

Unlike, say Windows or some consumer Linux distributions, Solaris 10 is a mother of an OS. It's a 747 compared to Lear Jets. While Solaris 10 has a Windows-like installation process, it assumes those who install it are reasonably familiar with the requirements of a heavy duty OS. So put aside a few hours for the install, and follow the instructions carefully.

You will need to select the right options at several points in the install process so it's critical that the step-by-step instructions below are followed. We have included instructions for the desktop rather than server install.

Key points to be aware of before proceeding to installation instructions below:

1. Reboot required after first disc
One peculiarity of the install is that the first disc (of the 5 in the installation set) installs a basic bootstrap OS which needs to be rebooted before the install process asks you for the second disc. When Solaris reboots your system after the first disc, you will need to ensure you've removed that disc from the drive, otherwise the install will start all over again.

2. Choice of two user interfaces
Solaris 10 gives you a choice of two user interfaces, a vanilla corporate UI called the CDE (Common Desktop Environment) and a sexy, Windows-like Java Desktop System (JDS release 3), based on the Gnome UI. You can also easily switch between them once you've installed the OS.

3. Getting StarOffice 7
Included with the OS basic install is Sun's StarOffice 7, which is Sun's commercial version of OpenOffice, the alternative to Microsoft Office found with most Linux distributions. Although it installs with Solaris 10, StarOffice 7 is available only via the Solaris JDS desktop, so if you want to use the office suite, make sure you select JDS as your GUI.

4. What's included in the package
Solaris 10 included five ISO images - four for the full OS and one for the Software Companion CD, which carries a large number of Solaris programs and utilities.

5. Burn the ISO images to a CD
The Solaris 10 ISO images (download links below) must be burned to a blank CD to be turned into installation discs. This is not the same as merely copying them to a CD. An ISO burn recreates the entire file structure of the original disc and requires you to use the Burn an Image or ISO option in your favourite CD burning program. There are instructions for using DVDdecrypter to do this here:(TBC).