Sun's big OSS move?
Sun tests the OSS waters with Solaris:
Sun, which has never completely rebounded from the tech collapse in 2001, hopes the no-cost of Solaris 10 will not only attract customers but also expand the number of developers who write programs that work on computers running the operating system.
The result, Sun believes, will be renewed demand for its servers and services. The company also will charge subscription fees for Solaris support and service programs that are typically sought by the businesses and organizations that Sun targets.
Well, that depends on what they do with the license. In general, free works for open source software - but does not work for commercial code. Sun seems like they get this - check this from further down in the article:
Sun also has promised make the underlying code of Solaris available under an open-source license, though the details have not been released. With access to the code, Solaris users will be able to take advantage of its features when developing their own software and systems.
So it's an open question to some extent. On the other hand, how likely is it for Sun to attract the kind of community that Linux has? Linux has a lot more time and momentum behind it. Time will tell.
Comments
How is Sun likely to attract the community that Linux has?
[Davide Inglima - limaCAT] November 16, 2004 13:48:37.721
I think that Sun will be really really really lucky if they make Solaris to be seen as another "unix-like-oss" distribution.
If Sun switches her userland to Gnu, or a userland mostly compatible with Gnu semantics, and adopts the Linux FHS, undergraduate students that already know fedora (or gentoo) will be able to find work for companies demanding Solaris skills. Yes, Sun faces dilution of the Solaris brand and concept (Customer: "how is your Solaris different from, let's say... DragonFly BSD or Gentoo? Does it run OpenOffice?") but if you put it in a "making-deals" perspective that's not stupid at all: (Marketing: "It's not different... if you find an undergraduate student he will be happily using Solaris because it reminds him of Dragonfly BSD" Customer: "Sweet! I buy 100 machines!"). The OSS community in the way of selling (and development) has only a relative importance, and is only a mean of marketing, not a real end... It is an end if you are looking for a way of making your software stronger and more resistant to attacks and general company screw-ups. An OSS community will help Solaris in being more polished. (How many years did Solaris have that awful installation process and hardware detection tool?). You are also correct to say that "Time will Tell", but in my opinion the age of "closed-source" has reached dusk... for infrastructural products... and Solaris IS an infrastructure, not an "end solution"... Also think about Apache VS Iss... In my personal opinion Sun has only everything to gain to push on hardware sales and on custom solutions.