“Sun has set itself up for some more brickbats from the open
source world by opening up access to source code and giving away –
sort of – the latest version of Solaris, Solaris 8. The move will
inevitably be seen as a bid to steal Linux’s clothes, and equally
inevitably will be sneered at because it doesn’t even come near
making Solaris open source.”
“But as we’ve said before around these parts, Sun is a smart
enough company to know it couldn’t get away with either of these.
And frankly, viewing the company’s every move as a ‘get Linux’
plan is excessively Linocentric….“
“This is obviously a substantial change in the way Sun does
business, but it’s equally obviously not open source, and nor is it
meant as such. Sun describes the price move as being in line with
its strategy of shifting to a fee-based service model, and intends
to make money from the software via a new set of Solaris 8 service
and support programmes. The switch to a service model is the
fashion de nos jours, so the move makes general sense.”