Features

SAN FRANCISCO — Sun Microsystems unveiled its latest long-range plan to take another swipe at Microsoft’s desktop dominance as the company took the wraps off “Project Mad Hatter,” a new line of low-cost computers powered by the Linux operating system and geared toward workplace environments. 

The new desktops will use Intel-standard processors and the Linux rather than Sun’s own chips and its Solaris operating system, an effort Sun hopes will leverage the low costs associated with open-source software, said Jonathan Schwartz, Sun’s executive vice president of software. 

“If you’re cost-sensitive or security-sensitive, we want to talk to you,” Schwartz told the audience Wednesday in a keynote speech at the company’s SunNetwork Conference and Pavilion in San Francisco. 

Sun is choosing to use other manufacturer’s existing 32-bit chips rather than developing its own. The focus is on the customer demand for a Linux desktop, and not so much the underlying hardware brand, according to Peder Ulander, Sun’s director of marketing for the company’s x86-class projects.