The company will announce availability of its Sun Studio 9 Integrated Development Environment (IDE), with C/C++ tools for building applications on Sparc, Xeon and Opteron, and for Java Desktop System (JDS) 2003, SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 8 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.

A key Sun Studio 9 feature is a graphical user interface-based approach to building applications. Developers programming for Linux largely use command-line based developments, eschewing a graphical environment – a fact that has posed a hurdle to commercial vendors entering this space.

Sun, though, believes there is a trend away from non-graphical tools, as Linux matures and encompasses programmers lacking the skills or time to work at such a deep level.

Barbara Kay, Sun director of marketing, said: As Linux enters the mainstream you need more rigor, shared programming tools, tools with collaboration and source code management, which have come to be taken for granted in the enterprise, to deliver quality code.

Studio 9 features include distributed make, GUI debugger for GCC libraries, performance tools, X-designer GUI Builder and reduced C/C++ compile times.

On servers, Sun will demonstrate its SunRay server software running natively on Linux. SunRay is Sun’s stateless, secure thin client hardware and software platform, and can currently only run on Linux if Sparc Solaris is running underneath. By running natively on Linux, SunRay 3.0 Server software, due by the end of 2004, is designed to lower cost and increase the flexibility for organizations with Linux.

Benjamin Baer, group manager for desktop solutions product marketing, said SunRay 3.0 would provide Sun with access to markets in the government, education, and technology sectors, and in call center environments.