Sun COO Schwartz Promises Open Source Solaris

Alapan writes "According to C-Net Asia, Sun plans to make Solaris open source soon. While I hardly expect Sun to make it GPL compatible, I wonder how much restrictions Sun will place on distributing modified solaris systems. And will we some integration of Solaris' strong points into other open source OSes like Linux and BSD?" Update: 06/02 14:16 GMT by T : Correction: Schwartz is Sun's COO and President, but not CEO (as the headline originally had it).

I could make a joke but i won't (or maybe i will)

[Anonymous Coward]

So if the software is free and the hardware is free...

1. give away everything
2. ???
3. profit!

no seriously, do they think they can pull off a profit from providing support services a la red hat, or will they try to squeeze profit from their other software offerings? makes no sense to me... have then gone insane?

Best Grammar Ever

[Edward Faulkner]

"And will we some integration of Solaris' strong points into other open source OSes like Linux and BSD?"

Mmmm. Some integration will we make.

What license?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sun's idea of "open source" is sometimes a peculiar one. What license will Solaris be OSed with?

Great news though... free hardware AND software from Sun. How does Sun make money? Volume!

...must... not... get... angry....

[mindfucker]

Java you morons, not Solaris. Almost nobody gives a flying fuck about whether Solaris is opened or not.

Re:I would be wary of this news

[Anonymous Coward]

127.0.0.1

Come get some. :)

Re:I could make a joke but i won't (or maybe i wil

[nightsweat]

1. give away everything
2. ???
3. profit!

The Nineties are back! Hoorah!

priceless

[evocate]

sun hardware: $0
solaris: $0
java: $0

watching the Sun go down: priceless

Re:apple and legos

[Anonymous Coward]

It seems to me that it's pretty easy to slap together hardware systems, but developing software systems is a little more daunting of a task. In hardware, it's like putting legos together.

You're uninformed. Actually designing software involves drawing up an interconnect of black boxes and picking a language to write the boxes in. The actual coding can be done anywhere by anyone, as long as the black boxes and interconnects can work.

Hardware design has some of the black box elements, but once the black boxes have been laid out and the necessary interconnects been drawn out, it basically has to be designed again to make sure that the electrical characteristics for the entire physical layout are met. This might have to go down to the transistor level (hopefully not). For a processor, there is no part of the idea->chip process that isn't a design process. That becomes less true for more integrated components. Designing a bridge chip is design intensive, but the interconnects between the chips on a motherboard is not so much (which doesn't mean it's as easy as writing software, for example).

Re:God, I hope not.

[mbonar]

"else we'll have a dozen forks that won't play nice with each other." That's what we have now. They're called JDK releases.

Free

[Anonymous Coward]

This is great, first the hardware is free and now the software too!

Re:I would be wary of this news

[nsayer]

Companies stopped paying big bucks for support years ago. That's why DEC died.

It's also why IBM died. Oh wait.

Free, free, free

[fmr]

Yesterday, hardware was free. Today, software is free. Tomorrow, people working at Sun will be free... to go.

Re:I would be wary of this news

[john82]

What happens to OpenOffice if MS acquires Sun? (not now, but in 2007 after SUN has laid off half its staff and lost most of its reserves?)

What happens to Java for that matter?

IF, Microsoft were to acquire Sun... (given that I find this a remote possibility)

1) Star Office would be officially pronounced (as in Medical Examiner) within days.
2) Open Office would continue more or less unaffected
3) Java on the other hand, in the form we currently know it, might also die for entirely BS reasons provided by Microsoft:

Redmond, Washington -- Officials at software giant Microsoft announced today that the entire Java development team had left the company to pursue "other opportunities". This stunning turn of events comes just weeks after Microsoft completed its acquisition of ailing Sun Microsystems. In the announcement, Microsoft said the move was driven by the failure of Java in the marketplace. "Unfortunately, it just never took hold. It was only a matter of time once we introduced .Net anyway" said an anonymous source. Officials at the company did say that they would vigorously defend any efforts to steal corporate IP. This in reference to vows from the Open Source community to create a repleacement for Java.