Sun takes page from Linux playbook with Solaris 10

SAN JOSE, CALIF. -- Executives from Sun Microsystems Inc. outlined their response to the growing popularity of Linux, speaking at the launch on Monday of the most significant update of the Solaris operating system in over two years. Key to the effort is a plan to release Solaris under an open source license with a new subscription pricing model, as well as a software updating system similar to those used by Linux vendors Red Hat Inc. and Novell Inc.

Though Sun executives say they have yet to chose a software license for the open source version of Solaris, this announcement will be made within the next 45 to 60 days, according to Sun. In addition to the release of Solaris source code, which must be compiled into machine-readable binary code before it can be used, Sun also plans to release a binary version of Solaris, free of charge, by Jan. 31, the company said.

For systems with four processors or fewer, Solaris revenue will come from subscription pricing, which will cost between $120 per processor per year and $360 per processor per year, depending on the level of support. Also expected in January is an automatic software updating system, called the Sun Update Connection, which will be available to Solaris subscribers. A version of the system that will let users create and distribute their own Solaris updates via a proxy server is planned for later in 2005, Sun said.

Pricing for Solaris 10 on systems with more than four processors has yet to be determined.

Sun's efforts to promote itself as an open source provider have been greeted with skepticism by many developers, in part because of Sun's historical antagonism toward Linux. On Monday, Sun executives continued their pattern of both dismissing Linux, while at the same time promising to interoperate with it.

With the first release of Solaris 10, expected in January, Sun will add support for the Solaris version of the standard Linux compiler, called the GNU (GNU's Not Unix) C Compiler. Follow-up releases in 2005 will include a Solaris version of the Linux boot loader, called GNU GRUB (Grand Unified Boot Loader), which will speed up the Solaris booting process on x86 machines. The company is also readying technology called Janus, which is designed to let Linux applications run, unchanged, on Solaris.

To ease application migration from Linux to Solaris, Sun expects to announce shortly that Solaris is compliant with the Linux Standard Base, a specification designed initially to encourage interoperability between software written for different Linux distributions, said Jonathan Schwartz, Sun's president and chief operating officer. "If you write to Red Hat, you'll be very easily able to move that application ... into our environment," he said.

Despite the talk of Linux interoperability, there was also criticism of the open source operating system at Monday's event. Hardware makers have been frustrated with their inability to get the approval necessary to have their code submissions accepted as part of the Linux kernel, Schwartz said.

In choosing the model for open source Solaris, Sun will build on the lessons it has learned in developing the Java Community Process, which standardizes and advances development of Sun's Java platform, Schwartz said. "The Linux community model currently is much freer, but there is a single conduit," he said referring to Linus Torvalds, the founder of the Linux kernel project who has ultimate say in what software gets added to the kernel. "The challenge is trying to build the best of both worlds together."