Volume Drives Value, Part 2
First of all, many companies would much rather issue a single PO to buy their server and their OS together. Before today, you couldn't do that if you wanted to get a Solaris support subscription and an IBM System X (x86) server. The world just became a lot simpler for IBM's Solaris users. IBM customers purchasing Solaris support subscriptions from IBM will still get the same great Sun support they are used to and will still use Sun Connection to manage their Solaris updates, it is just that they will be able to buy their Solaris subscription from IBM at the same time as they buy their server.
But there is a lot more behind today's announcement than simply a new way to buy your Solaris support subscription. Sun and IBM will be working together on driver optimization and system qualification to ensure Solaris reliability and performance is optimized for IBM BladeCenter and IBM System x servers, just like Sun is doing today for our own Sun Blade and Sun Fire x86 servers. IBM's customers can now sleep easily knowing Solaris is a safe choice for IBM's x86 servers. In addition, Solaris users now have one more choice in where to buy their hardware. I expect, no one was ever fired for buying a Solaris system from IBM will soon become a common phrase around large corporations. Sun's always believed in providing our customers choice, and this is just one more example of how we are doing that.
Today's announcement is not just good for end-users, it is good for Solaris ISVs as well. If you were developing software yesterday that you could sell on a Sun Solaris system, today you can be assured that you will be able to sell your software on an IBM Solaris system as well. Since Solaris already supports over 895 systems from IBM, HP, Dell, and other hardware vendors (including Sun), that was actually the case yesterday too. But if I was an ISV, I would certainly feel a lot more comfortable now knowing that IBM was directly offering Solaris support subscriptions.
Speaking of our great Solaris support and support subscriptions, what ever happened to free and open source. Well, you will be glad to know we have no plans to change that. You can still get Solaris for free for Sun servers, and yes you can get it for free too for those 895 different systems from IBM, HP, Dell and others. Unlike other operating systems distributors that require you to purchase a support subscription to get their version of an open source OS, we would rather give Solaris away free. We will even ship you a free DVD of our latest Solaris Express Developer Edition, yes, with free shipping too. Our business model is simple, Solaris is free, we make money selling support subscriptions, and now, getting IBM to sell our support subscriptions. Volume drives value.
And one final note, Solaris is still open source. Free, open source, the best world class support now available for purchase from both Sun and IBM, and runs on over 895 platforms. So what is left to do in Solaris marketing? Don't worry, we have a few more thing we are working on :). Stay tuned for Volume Drives Value, Part 3.
Solaris is not "open source", yet. Many (but not all) parts of the *next* version are open source, but if you want the source code for any supported version, you have to pay money for it.
Posted by Numpty on August 16, 2007 at 12:43 PM PDT #
Numpty,
Solaris, used generically, is open source. Solaris 10 is our current commercial distribution of Solaris and you are correct in stating that not all of Solaris 10 source code is actually open sourced. The source code available on OpenSolaris.org, as you state, corresponds to the most current version of the code we are currently developing which will be the basis for the next version of Solaris. As I expect you know, the key innovations in Solaris 10 including DTrace, ZFS, and Containers are all open sourced. The only Solaris 10 source code not open sourced are certain pieces like device drivers that Sun does not have the source code rights for. To be fair, most Linux commercial distributions also include some binary components that are not open sourced either. So while I know it bothers a small minority of people, I have no plans to stop saying "Solaris is open source". I am pretty careful to not say, "Solaris 10 is open source". Also, we have publically stated that we plan to start offering support later this year for SXDE, and then for the Project Indiana binary distribution when it becomes available. SXDE is also not 100% open source as it contains additional components like Sun Studio compilers that are not open source, but SXDE is otherwise based on the OpenSolaris.org code so hopefully that addresses some of your objections.
Posted by Marc Hamilton on August 16, 2007 at 01:39 PM PDT #
Fair comment. Unfortunately, the "small minority of people" it bothers most are nonetheless often key players in the Mozilla, GNOME etc. communities that Sun engineers have to interact with on a daily basis to make Good Things happen on Solaris... and the more they see Sun's higher echelons making inappropriate use (in their opinion) of terms like "open source", the harder those engineers' jobs become :/
Posted by Numpty on August 16, 2007 at 05:09 PM PDT #
Fair comment back to you as well Numpty. While we certainly want first class Mozilla, GNOME, etc. implementations on Solaris 10, as soon as the OpenSolaris/Indiana binary distribution is ready I'd really like to see the focus of those projects shift to OpenSolaris. Solaris 10 is a great enterprise OS, but I think where we are going to attract new users will be primarily around OpenSolaris based distros, especially with the changes that Project Indiana plans to deliver.
Posted by Marc Hamilton on August 16, 2007 at 07:07 PM PDT #