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Sun to Open Up Solaris Software Company Hopes Free System Will Lure Clients Who Favor Linux

Posted on: Thursday, 27 January 2005, 12:00 CST

Sun Microsystems has said that its Solaris 10 operating system will soon be available on an open-source basis, a move that the company hopes will help counter the perception that its technology is too proprietary and expensive.

The decision, announced on Tuesday, means that the software will be free and that programmers other than Sun will be able to customize and improve it.

The company, based in Santa Clara, California, has lost considerable business in the market for computer servers to companies like Dell and Hewlett-Packard, whose low-cost systems run Linux, a free open-source operating system. By offering its own open- source software for these so-called X86-based systems, Sun is hoping to regain the support of software developers and corporate information managers who dropped Sun products in favor of Linux- based systems.

John Loiacono, executive vice president of software at Sun, said the decision to offer a free version of Solaris was intended to help Sun expand the market for its other programs and its servers. "The more people use Solaris, the more opportunities we have to sell other technologies," he said.

Solaris runs on standard servers from Dell, Hewlett and others, as well as those made by Sun.

Scott McNealy, chief executive of Sun, said the company's technology had never been as closed as its competitors had tried to portray it. Still, McNealy said, with many government agencies and corporations demanding open-source alternatives, the company felt it had to open up even further to compete.

McNealy said many large companies preferred open-source software because they did not want to be dependent on a single vendor or source of technical support.

Sun also announced that it would allow free use of the technology in 1,600 of its patents related to Solaris, marking a strategic shift in the way the company manages its patent portfolio. By eliminating what they called the patent "quagmire," Sun executives said they wanted to help developers get their technologies onto the market faster.

The company said a customizable source code for Solaris would be available in the second quarter. In the meantime, the company said it was establishing an advisory board to oversee development of the open-source software, called OpenSolaris.

Sun's move comes as it continues to struggle financially. Last week, the company announced that it had achieved a small profit in its second quarter, though its revenue declined.

Brian Richardson, an analyst at Meta Group, said the open-source move would help Sun position its systems as an alternative to low- price systems running other open-source software. "It's necessary to counter the threat of Linux," he said.

McNealy said that Sun's decision to offer Solaris as open-source software marked a return to its roots, a heritage that was often overlooked. He pointed out that Sun's original operating system was based on Berkeley Unix, one of the first open-source programs. "This is back to the future for Sun," McNealy said.

Source: International Herald Tribune

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