The sound thing is a known issue. I have an Audigy card and had to hunt a driver down on the internet. In short: google and thou shalt find (I guess).

As for the server, Sun/Solaris XDE now has a bundle.available that combines Apache, PHP, Python, Perl and a few other niceties all in a convenient package. By the way, were you referring to the Sun Java System Application Server that is normally installed along with Netbeans? Or about Tomcat?

Not so nice: the way that zones are handled. This has a potential to make things very secure but it can also become a major PITA when installing certain applications.

Another nice read on Solaris advantages. Read the black text at the bottom.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07...ace_user_take/

ZFS is really great - makes me wonder when there will be something comparable Linux.
Doesn't look like thats going to happen anytime soon.
If you look at the features of Linux file systems and what zfs can do you really think time stood still in the Linux camp for the last couple of years.

Using whole-root zones removes most installation limitations.

ZFS is the main attraction w/ Solaris, at least, for myself.

As far as running a true "UNIX", I don't see the point. UNIX is merely a certification (ie. a title), and AFAIK linux would be UNIX if someone were to pay to get it certified as such. Other than that, I see no other obstacles that would prevent linux from being UNIX.