Sun to offer new Solaris as 'open-source' software

It cost Sun Microsystems $5 billion to develop Solaris, a powerful computer operating system used by governments and giant corporations worldwide. But in a concession to the radical new economics of computer software, Sun will distribute the latest version of Solaris free of charge, to anyone who wants a copy.

At yesterday's official launch of the new Solaris 10 operating system in San Jose, Calif., Sun executives said Solaris will be issued next January under an ''open-source" licensing plan similar to that used by the rival operating system Linux and the popular new Web browser Firefox. Like Linux and Firefox, Solaris 10 will be available for free downloading over the Internet. Large corporate customers can pay for a Solaris contract, and get technical support and the latest bug fixes, for less than they now pay to buy Solaris outright.

The same business model has turned Linux distributors Red Hat Inc. of Raleigh, N.C., and Novell Inc. of Waltham into two of Sun's most dangerous competitors. Sun has lost major corporate clients to Linux, which many say is as good as Solaris, but considerably less expensive. By changing its pricing strategy, Sun is fighting back. ''We're clearly going after Red Hat," said Tom Goguen, vice president of marketing at Sun's operating systems group.

Sun isn't just cutting Solaris's price; it's also unveiling the product's ''source code"-- the raw computer code that makes the software work. Skilled users will be able to modify Solaris 10 by changing the source code, like they can with Linux and other open-source products. Customers can tailor it to their needs, then share their modifications with others. Sun can add these modifications to the standard version of Solaris. In effect, Sun's customers will become part of the firms research and development effort, constantly adding upgrades to the product at no cost to Sun.

It's the same approach taken by Linux firms like Red Hat. They fund only a fraction of the upgrades made to Linux; most are provided voluntarily by individuals and corporations. Meanwhile, Sun spent $500 million over the past 2 years to develop the latest version of Solaris, and $5 billion since it was introduced in 1991.

The new Solaris is designed for ''virtualization"-- the ability to slice up the capacity of a single computer into two or more separate ''virtual machines." Each virtual machine runs as if it were a standalone computer, totally unaffected by anything happening on the rest of the computer. Goguen said many Solaris users now utilize just 10 or 15 percent of their servers' computing power. By running multiple virtual machines, they can boost this to 80 percent or more, thereby avoiding the need to buy additional servers.

Solaris 10 will also offer a feature that allows programmers to trace each step the computer uses to run their programs. Goguen said this will enable programmers to write code that avoids wasted processing cycles and runs much faster. Solaris 10 will run on computers equipped with PC-compatible chips from Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc., and on computers using Sun's own SPARC line of processor chips. The PC version of Solaris will be able to run Linux programs without any modification of the software.

Joanne Rohde, executive vice president for worldwide operations at Red Hat, said Sun will need more than an open source plan to save Solaris. She said the sharp price cut means Solaris can't cover its development costs. ''Sun is dropping their prices 95 percent," Rohde said. ''I don't think they've had a 95 percent drop in their cost structure."

The open-source approach could lower Sun's development costs if Solaris users begin contributing free improvements to the code. But Novell spokesman Bruce Lowry says that won't happen for some time. ''The Linux community is very strong, it's been developing for many years," Lowry said. ''It would take a long time for any formerly proprietary product to develop anything like the infrastructure that surrounds Linux."

But Goguen said Sun is already a welcome part of the open-source community, because Sun contributes code to Linux and other open source software projects. ''We've been big contributors to the open source community," Goguen said.

Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com.