Sun Announces Open Source License for Solaris Operating System

Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) today announced that the source code for Solaris(TM) 10 -- the most advanced operating system in the industry -- will be made
available under the OSI (Open Source Initiative) approved Common Development
and Distribution License (CDDL). The company has established a community Web
site at opensolaris.org. Buildable source code for Solaris will be available
at this site in the second quarter of 2005.

"Sun's heritage has always been deeply rooted in open source and open
standards-based software. OpenSolaris(TM) represents a significant milestone
in the history of Sun, the Solaris community and larger open source
community," said John Loiacono, executive vice president of Software at Sun.

"We strongly believe the OpenSolaris community will help foster the innovation
and collaboration needed to open up new opportunities for developers,
customers and partners."

"Sun has its roots in the BSD UNIX(r) distribution, which I released under
the pioneering open source license. I'm glad that the Solaris source code, and
its many innovations, are finally going to be more widely available," said
Bill Joy, Sun co-founder and current partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield
& Byers.

In conjunction with today's announcement, the company is also releasing
code -- under the CDDL -- for its Solaris DTrace technology, one of the most
popular features of Solaris 10. DTrace source code is immediately available
for download from opensolaris.org.

"As an Independent Software Vendor, OpenSolaris provides a deeper
understanding of Solaris and a direct channel of feedback to the engineers. We
now have deeper insight into the workings of production systems," said Philip
Beevers, a developer at royalblue.

"Through the OpenSolaris pilot program, we've been able to do things with
DTrace which we couldn't do before. With access to the source code through
CDDL, we hope to innovate more with DTrace and improve our own products."

In support of today's announcement, Sun will also establish a Community
Advisory Board to help oversee the evolution of OpenSolaris OS technology and
the community development efforts. Initially, the advisory board will consist
of five members -- two will be elected from the OpenSolaris Pilot community,
two will be Sun employees, and one member will be selected from the broader
open source community. This advisory board will be finalized by March 2005 and
will grow and evolve over time to meet the needs of the community.

The CDDL, which was approved by the Open Source Initiative's (OSI) board
of directors on January 14, is based on the well-regarded Mozilla(TM) Public
License (MPL). Sun, in partnership with members of the open source community,
created a license based upon the MPL that is shorter, clearer, has simplified
notice requirements, and contains strong protections against patent
litigation. The CDDL was also created to be a reusable license that would be
attractive to other open source efforts, so that other projects with similar
community and licensing goals would not need to create a new license. For
more detailed information on the CDDL license, please visit:
http://www.opensource.org/licenses/cddl1.php and http://www.sun.com/cddl/ .

"It was great to work with Sun on the CDDL. They did their homework, were
careful in all the details and they privately previewed the license with
influential members of the license committee," said Russ Nelson, vice
president, OSI. "Sun addressed everyone's concerns and in the end produced a
license that is clearly and comfortably open source. The CDDL will help them
build the community of developers necessary for any open source project."

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Jessica Bookach
Citigate Cunningham for Sun Microsystems, Inc.
201-499-3581
jbookach@citigatecunningham.com

Michelle Brown
Citigate Cunningham for Sun Microsystems, Inc.
415-618-8720
mbrown@citigatecunningham.com

Related Articles

• Forrester Research Surveys Linux Usage and IBM Increases Open Source Programmers
  Tuesday, 25 January 2005



• Open Source Business Conference Announces Keynote Speakers
  Tuesday, 25 January 2005



• HP IBM Intel and Sun Microsystems Launch Globus Consortium
  Tuesday, 25 January 2005



• Sonic Software, BearingPoint and Sun Bring Join for Forum
  Thursday, 20 January 2005



• Sun Launches Highly Scalable Compliance and Content Management Solution
  Thursday, 20 January 2005



• Linux and Open Source in 2005
  Wednesday, 19 January 2005



• Sun Completes Acquisition Of Sevenspace
  Monday, 17 January 2005



• Finding Cures For Tropical Diseases- Is Open Source An Answer?
  Sunday, 16 January 2005



• Sun Microsystems Reports Profit for Fiscal 2005 Second Quarter
  Friday, 14 January 2005



• Sun To Boost UltraSparc-IV Clock Speeds in Early February
  Thursday, 13 January 2005



• Caucho Technology Becomes a Sun Microsystems J2EE Licensee
  Tuesday, 11 January 2005



• Sybase Wins Open Source Worlds 2004 Editors Choice Award
  Monday, 10 January 2005



• IIEP Internet Discussion Forum on Free and Open Source Software for e-Learning
  Sunday, 9 January 2005



• Black Duck Software Seminars to Highlight Open Source Best Practices
  Thursday, 6 January 2005



• Cheap Computing and Open Source Movement Reduce Software Costs
  Thursday, 6 January 2005