Has anyone used the Java Desktop System?
a dedicated server
Why would you want to use desktop system on server?
And, according to Distrowatch
Sun JDS, it doesn't include Apache or any other server components.
I've tried JDS promo live-cd - nothing spectacular I'd say, SuSE 9.1 is much better for the same price.
BTW, Wallmart link is dead - it says that this page is temporary or permanently unavailable, and from their main page I could see some computers with JDS, with the best one with P4 3Ghz and 256Mb ram, 80 Gb IDE hdd - I wouldn't buy this stuff to use as a server - I'd prefer something with Xeon (well, P4 could do the job for low end system), at least 1 Gb ECC ram - servers should use error checking ram, SCSI hdd - IDE drive will be THE bottleneck in your system, most probably with RAID controller and redundant disks, better if hot-swappable, GOOD(better if redundant hot-swappable too)power supply - desktop systems usually equipped with cheap crap, good server case with proper fans.
Although, it would be somewhat more expensive than $698.But you could cut some corners and use SATA Raptor Hdd instead of SCSI.
Here's a link to Supermicro - they make relatively cheap, but good quality server components
Supermicro