Electronics 1992
SunSoft
Solaris: So Easy It Can’t Be UNIX.
FROM THE PRINTED PAGEOriginal ad copy
OCR transcription from the archived page. Scanning and reading-order errors may remain.
Solaris: So Easy It Can't Be UNIX. Power Made Simple. Imagine making the power of 32-bit systems easy to use. Imagine networks that not only tie together individuals, they make groups more productive. Imagine computers united by a consistent environment. Imagine running today's favorite programs while gaining access to tomorrow's applications. Imagine no more. Solaris® system software makes distributed computing as simple as stand-alone computing, while bringing the power of UNIX® and SVR4 to users—easily. Maybe that's why Solaris is the world's most widely used 32-bit computing solution. The Network At Your Fingertips. The Solaris solution starts with technology from Xerox that sparked the idea for the Macintosh® user interface, making Solaris as easy to use as any PC. But, because Solaris was created with group productivity in mind, it does much more. Solaris breaks the isolation of personal computing by bringing network resources to the desktop. Want to send that chart to a color printer in another building? It's easy. Want to render that 3D image on a Cray in the next state? It's easy. Solaris allows objects, like files, to be dragged and dropped on function icons, such as a printer, for instant action. With Solaris, the network is at your fingertips. Increase Personal And Workgroup Productivity. Solaris also includes 15 tools that enhance group productivity. Among these is Multimedia Mail, which can send any type of file—applications, audio, video, graphics—in a mail message. The Workgroup Calendar Manager serves as an on-line personal and group calendar that makes scheduling meetings with people next door or on the next continent easy. What's more, Solaris offers over 4,000 solutions including Lotus 1-2-3, Ashton-Tate dBase and WordPerfect. And SunSoft has an easy way for you to try these applications. It's Catalyst™ CDware.™ With CDware, you can try more than $250,000 of software from your desktop. Solaris offers more options for productive work than any other 32-bit environment. Now, that's easy! The Time Is Now. Don't wait for your PC to grow up. It's time to see for yourself how easy it is to access the power of Solaris. Call now for a free version of CDware and the names of our OEM partners who can give you a guided tour of Solaris. 1-800-227-9227, Ext. 123. See you there. Worksheet Window Graph Projected Gains With Solaris Productivity enhancements with distributed computing AudioTool · [illegible icon label] · snapshot File Manager V3 :/Easy UNIX/No Problemo/SunSoft's Solaris File · View · Edit · Props · Goto [illegible application labels] · CDware · FrameMaker · Island Lotus 123 · Oracle · SunPro · Van Gogh · WordPerfect video file · voice message Opening SunSoft's Solaris Solaris Deskset Multimedia Mail... · Calendar Manager... · File Manager... · Audio Tool... · Print Tool... · Snapshot... · Icon Editor... · Text Editor... · Clock... · Calculator... · Tape Tool... · Binder... · Performance Meter... · Command Tool... · Shell Tool... · Demos... Multimedia Mail To: Ed Zander From: Scott McNealy Subject: It's So Easy! Yo, Ed. Solaris is so easy, even I can use it. And I'm not the only one who thinks so—important people around the world have contacted me. I've summarized their comments in the attached video and voice messages. After you've reviewed them please schedule appointments with the hottest prospects using your Workgroup Calendar Manager, to make sure George and John are still the right people. Scott Attachments · Scott says · Video Multimedia Mail gives you a simple, powerful way to send more than just text by electronic mail. Multimedia Mail lets you easily send any type of file with your message just by dragging it to the window. CM Multi-Browser Schedule · Mail · Goto · 3/26/92 Calendars Busy At Time Selected Scott@Sun · Ed@SunSoft · George@DC · John@10 Downing · Helmut@Bonn · Boris@C.Kremlin · Francoise@Paris Calendar / Boris.Kremlin March 1992 Calendar Manager's Multi-Browser lets you view and overlay calendars anywhere on your network simultaneously, to make scheduling your meetings easy. SunSoft A Sun Microsystems, Inc. Business ©1992 Sun Microsystems, Inc. [illegible fine print] Circle 151 on Inquiry Card.
Commentary
I started with the cello, an oddly physical thing to find inside a software demonstration. Around it float pink windows, a turquoise graph and a little filmed face. SunSoft has arranged distributed computing as a desk full of things one can point at. The huge headline on the opposite page supplies the objection: UNIX is presumed difficult. Solaris is introduced as the pleasant contradiction.
The screenshots repay a closer look. A message from Scott McNealy to Ed Zander opens “Yo, Ed.” The shared calendar puts Downing Street and the Kremlin beside Sun employees. I read this miniature diplomatic office as a joke about scale: the same interface that handles colleagues could, in the demonstration’s imagination, organize the world. The body copy moves from a printer in another building to a Cray in another state. Distance changes; the promised gesture stays simple.
What now feels ordinary is carefully itemized: files attached to mail, shared calendars, dragging an object onto a printer. The ad documents how those activities once needed a demonstration and even a guided tour. Its free CDware offer also makes software discovery physical: call a number, obtain a disc, try applications. The contrast with a downloadable trial helps explain why the spread spends so much space making an unfamiliar environment visibly inhabited.
For young copywriters, “So Easy It Can’t Be UNIX” makes a presumed objection do the work of a headline. The repeated “Imagine” sentences build a list of wants; “Imagine no more” announces that the product resolves them. Later, two questions receive the identical answer, “It’s easy.” Repetition becomes evidence only when the examples differ. A beginner can borrow that structure: repeat the benefit while changing the task that demonstrates it.
SunSoft identifies itself here as a Sun Microsystems business. Sun began in 1982 and became part of Oracle in 2010. Oracle continues to document Solaris as an enterprise operating system, rather than the cheerful boxed desktop introduction pictured here.
The lasting proposition is that network power should be accessible through familiar actions. The specific application catalogue, CD distribution and need to explain mail attachments locate that proposition in 1992. The ad makes usability consequential by showing what becomes reachable when complexity recedes.