The Solaris Operating Environment (Solaris OE) consists of the
SunOS 5.x
operating system, Open Network Computing (ONC+™) software, and the
Solaris CDE graphical user interface (GUI).
The SunOS operating system is software that manages system
resources
and schedules system operations. This operating system interprets
instructions from the user or from an application and instructs the
computer what to do. The operating system handles data, keeps track
of
data stored on disks, and communicates with I/O devices, such as
monitors, hard disks, diskette drives, printers, and modems.
ONC+ software provides network services, such as Network File
System
(NFS), which allows file sharing between computers. Other services
are
Network Information Service (NIS), which provides network
information
naming services to clients, and Network Information Service Plus
(NIS+).
The CDE is the GUI that, for example, displays the Login screen on
your
monitor. You can use the CDE to access most of the functions of the
computer.