* Sun to offer Solaris as an open source platform
Sun got closer to finally lifting the shades on the source code for its vaunted Solaris Unix-based operating system last week. The vendor said it would have Solaris code released to the Open Source Initiative, a vendor-neutral industry group, in the next few months that would allow users to compile a functional server from the source.
Sun got closer to finally lifting the shades on the source code for its vaunted Solaris Unix-based operating system last week. The vendor said it would have Solaris code released to the Open Source Initiative, a vendor-neutral industry group, in the next few months that would allow users to compile a functional server from the source.
The code was submitted to OSI last month for review and approval. Once the code has the OSI stamp of approval, it will be released under the Common Development Distribution License, which is the same license that governs how the Firefox Web browser, among other open source apps, is distributed and protected. Under this license, the code will be distributed as OpenSolaris.
OpenSolaris will release technology once protected by 1,600 software patents to the open source community. But the real aim of OpenSolaris is probably less altruistic than the vendor is letting on. Unix has seen negative revenue growth over the last four quarters while Linux has grown marketshare during that time. with OpenSolaris, observers say, Sun is really hoping to lure back some of the customers it lost to Linux. Data center server admins have sought out open source software as a Unix alternative, driven by a demand for lower platform licensing costs, and more importantly, for systems that are not tied to proprietary server hardware architecture – such as Sun’s, as well as IBM’s and HP’s respective Unix platforms.
Still, Sun – which is a great contributor to open source – should be applauded for the move. OpenSolaris could lead to better interoperability between Solaris and Linux environments and make it easier for application developers to write code that runs efficiently on both platforms. It also gives users who prefer to build their own server systems from scratch another option to the many that are out there.
