Sun expands menu of free software

Sun, which early this year released a free version of its Unix-based Solaris operating system, last week announced plans to unleash its entire software stack to the open source community.

Following through on its promise, Sun announced it would make its Java Enterprise System - a suite of server middleware that includes identity management, Web infrastructure software and an application server (which Sun released to the open source community earlier this year) - available for free.

In addition, Sun said it is making available at no cost an integrated suite of software called the Solaris Enterprise System that adds Solaris; the PostgreSQL database; N1 management tools, which include the N1 system manager, the N1 service provisioning system and the N1 grid engine; Java, C and C++ development tools; SunRay thin client software; and secure desktop software to the Java Enterprise stack.

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Sun, which early this year released a free version of its Unix-based Solaris operating system, last week announced plans to unleash its entire software stack to the open source community.

Following through on its promise, Sun announced it would make its Java Enterprise System - a suite of server middleware that includes identity management, Web infrastructure software and an application server (which Sun released to the open source community earlier this year) - available for free.

In addition, Sun said it is making available at no cost an integrated suite of software called the Solaris Enterprise System that adds Solaris; the PostgreSQL database; N1 management tools, which include the N1 system manager, the N1 service provisioning system and the N1 grid engine; Java, C and C++ development tools; SunRay thin client software; and secure desktop software to the Java Enterprise stack.

"The majority of the components are available online," said John Loiacono, executive vice president of software at Sun, during a conference call with reporters and analysts. "We are making available probably about 80% of the code. There are some pieces of the code that we are working toward making available. Those will be available probably by the first quarter of next year."

Customers can expect more code, including storage management software to be released to the open source community over time, he said.

"The summary of this whole thing is we just believe that anyone still dealing in the proprietary Unix space or the proprietary [software] space is challenged because this is . . . how people today are developing applications," Loiacono said.

The move makes good on promises Sun President and COO Jonathan Schwartz made in the summer in detailing Sun's plans to eventually contribute all of its software code to the open source community. Schwartz believes Sun can better compete with companies such as Microsoft and IBM by taking advantage of the open source model to drive up volume.

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