Sun said it plans, over time, to deliver a code for Solaris that is free for download, a right-to-use version of Solaris with simple support, and a version featuring a range of full service offerings.
Support will include security patches, web and telephone support according to executive vice president John Loiacono said Friday. Loiacono said Sun would give customers different pricing spectrums, although he did not go into potential pricing of the charged product.
Speaking in San Francisco, on Friday, Loiacono refused to put a date on when Sun would finally open source Solaris 10, due to ship on January 31.
Sun seems to be hesitating over the issue of licensing. The company has proposed an entirely new open source license, Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL), which it has submitted to the Open Source Initiative (OSI) for consideration for Solaris 10.
Loiacono would not say whether Solaris 10 would be made available under CDDL, though, but said Sun developed the license to provide further options.
Despite Sun’s apparent hesitation in committing Solaris 10 to open source, Loiacono revealed Sun revealed plans to open source the company’s entire middleware stack, starting in 2005.
Solaris 10 is not the only technology I’m interested in open sourcing. But I need licenses. There is no one license that’s appropriate to all. I have other things coming that CDDL would be appropriate to. We have a whole portfolio of middleware we will get aggressive with, Loiacono said.
Loiacono said Sun would release its code because it was getting back to where it started rather than use the policy as a tool to compete against emerging open source middleware specialists like JBoss Corp or the ObjectWeb Consortium. Past open source projects from Sun include the now ubiquitous Network File System (NFS).
Loiacono added there is further advantage in putting Sun’s code into the community, because developers outside Sun can help fix and development.
Additionally, Sun will charge on a subscription-based for all its software. We are going to move to sub pricing across the board, Loiacono said.
