Pat reports on the first build of FAM 8.0 as part of the OpenSSO community. This will provide convergence with Access Manager and Federation Manager features, in an Open Source model, like GlassFish. Check out the architecture (blog, wiki) and the roadmap (blog, diagram). New features include much improved usability, Access and Federation Manager Features, Identity Services and Web Services Security - more details here.

Download it here, play with it and give feedback at the USERS list. I think FAM/OpenSSO will have a big impact on the industry; check it out.

Sun just announced that Sun's entire server-side software portfolio will be free of charge and open source. This is internally known as Project Red October, after the fictional russian submarine in Tom Clancy's novel based on a typhoon class submarine. Read JL's blog for the why of the name. The deal includes Solaris 10, N1, Development Tools, and JES; it seems Sun is using the term Solaris Enterprise System for the whole thing. The response seems mostly positive. Some interesting blogs are from Juan Carlos Soto, Simon Phipps, and from JL himself. News reaction as of this posting includes Red Herring, The Street and ZDNet.