Sun, Google sign distribution deal, say little about future together

Sun and Google on Tuesday announced a multi-year deal to help each other distribute software, a move that fell well short of an anticipated high-impact deal to challenge Microsoft on the desktop.

In essence, the two said they would help each other promote the use of software that is already free and widely used. The agreement calls for Sun to include the Google Toolbar as an option in consumer downloads of its Java Runtime Environment (JRE). The JRE is software that installs on a PC in order to run Java-based applications. Sun claims 700 million users have the technology.

The two also said that they would work together to champion the cause of open source software, such as JRE and OpenOffice.

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Sun and Google on Tuesday announced a multi-year deal to help each other distribute software, a move that fell well short of an anticipated high-impact deal to challenge Microsoft on the desktop.

In essence, the two said they would help each other promote the use of software that is already free and widely used. The agreement calls for Sun to include the Google Toolbar as an option in consumer downloads of its Java Runtime Environment (JRE). The JRE is software that installs on a PC in order to run Java-based applications. Sun claims 700 million users have the technology.

The two also said that they would work together to champion the cause of open source software, such as JRE and OpenOffice.

However, the two companies repeatedly declined to offer details at a morning press conference held in Mountain View, Calif., on the future fruits of their labor or any developments around an online suite of productivity applications. The press conference included Sun CEO Scott McNealy, Sun’s chief software architect Jonathan Schwartz and Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

Google has been building a stable of online services including e-mail and instant messaging applications and speculation was rampant on Monday that the two vendors were cooking up a joint effort to add office applications like calendars and spreadsheets to the mix. The build-up included speculation for the use of StarOffice 8, Sun’s collection of productivity software, and OpenOffice, an open source suite similar to StarOffice.

“You can speculate all day long on how we can work together and they are all legitimate speculations, but we can only talk about what you are hearing today,” said McNealy. When asked if Microsoft was a future target, McNealy sidestepped and said, “We are going after revenue, growth, profits and customers.”

Schmidt said from certain perspectives “we are not announcing anything.”

 “There was not a lot of detail here, but the potential is substantial,” says Dana Gardner, principal analyst with Interarbor Solutions, a consulting firm. Gardner says the trick now is to show the Google/Sun effort has as much substance as potential.

“I think this is a symbolic move rather than a cutting edge announcement,” says Gardner. “They are complimentary companies.”

Both companies are focused on developing feature-rich network based-application available over a network or the Web to replace “fat client” desktop applications.

The two companies also were vague about Google becoming an even larger user of Sun’s technology to run its online operations. McNealy would only say to stay tuned for more news.