STOCK QUOTES     More market data...

Latest version of Sun's Solaris software is free

By MATTHEW FORDAHL
The Associated Press

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most read articles Most e-mailed articles

Sun, which hasn't completely rebounded from the tech collapse in 2001, hopes that a free 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 will be renewed demand for its servers and services, Sun believes. The company will charge subscription fees for Solaris support and service programs typically sought by the businesses and organizations Sun targets.

"Hewlett Packard sells a printer at a low price and makes a lot of money on printer cartridges. Gillette gives you the razor and makes a lot of money on the blades," said Sun Chief Executive Scott McNealy. "There are different ways to drive market penetration."

The dramatic discount is a response to the growing threat that free and open-source software such as Linux poses to traditional software companies including Sun and Microsoft. It's also the center of Sun's strategy to regain at least some of its former shine.

Sun could easily lose its bet, dropping revenue and hastening Solaris' slide toward irrelevance. "For it to work, Sun must 'execute flawlessly,' " Meta Group analyst Nick Gall said. "That's often a code word for 'doubtful.' "

Solaris 10 will be unveiled today at an event in San Jose, though it won't be formally released until the end of January. The software will work on more than 270 computer platforms running on chips from Sun, Intel or Advanced Micro Devices.

The price of earlier versions of Solaris typically ran between hundreds and thousands of dollars, depending on the system being run by the software, said Tom Goguen, Sun's vice president of operating platforms.

Sun also has promised to 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.

The move stands in contrast to Microsoft's Windows and other proprietary operating systems in which the blueprints are released only to select outsiders, if any.
 
Depending on the final license, Sun's strategy could make Solaris more competitive with open-source operating systems like Linux and distributors such as Red Hat.

Solaris will run programs written for the Linux operating system without having to make any changes.

Sun's belief is that there are three operating systems left standing, still fully committed to by their respective vendors: Windows, Linux and Solaris, Gall said.

It has watched Unix variants made by IBM and Hewlett-Packard decline, especially as those companies have pushed Linux on the machines they sell.

Sun has to do something different or risk having Solaris suffer the same fate, Gall said.

"Otherwise, the conventional wisdom is that Solaris looks too much like the traditional Unixes, and people assume it will be replaced by Linux."

Material from the Los Angeles Times was included in this report.