Sun Microsystems Shipping Dot-Com-Grade Solaris 8 Operating Environment Worldwide

70,000 Units of Enterprise-Class Solaris 8 Operating Environment Shipped

PALO ALTO, CA. -- March 28, 2000 -- Sun Microsystems today announced that after the first few weeks of availability, 70,000 units of the enterprise-class Solaris 8 Operating Environment shipped to those enterprise-class corporations driving the Internet. Meeting a very aggressive schedule for development and deployment, the Solaris 8 Operating Environment is now available on a worldwide basis for dot-com corporations everywhere.

Corporations that demand both performance and predictability on the Internet now have access to a dot-com-grade operating environment with no license fees. Solaris 8 Operating Environment is committed to providing the most advanced technologies and standards, such as IPv6, to handle the increasing number of web devices. In addition, the Solaris 8 Operating Environment ships with a suite of co-packaged software that includes office productivity software, a web server, an Oracle database, and a migration tool to move from SQL server to an Oracle database.

"The heavy lifting and huge transaction loads that transpire on the Internet require a proven solution," said Anil Gadre, Sun's vice president and general manager, Solaris Software. "Even tiny dot-coms know they must plan for massive growth -- they turn to the Solaris Operating Environment because they are going to get data center reliability from day one."

Orders for Solaris 8 Media Kits demonstrate the strength of the Solaris Operating Environment as an independent operating environment. Over two-thirds of the orders for the Media Kit were to customers choosing the Solaris Operating Environment (Intel Platform Edition) software.

Free Solaris Binaries

Through the Free Solaris Binary License Program, anyone can use the dot-com-grade Solaris 8 Operating Environment without paying license fees. For only the cost of media and shipping, licensees can use the software on an unlimited number of computers with a capacity of 8 or fewer CPUs.

About Free Solaris Binary License Program More information about participating in the Free Solaris Binary License Program can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.sun.com/solaris/binaries/.

Pricing and Availability

While the software and co-packaged code is free, Sun is charging $75 for the cost of media, which includes the Solaris 8 Operating Environment in 37 languages, a Solaris Software Companion CD, and co-packaged software, including: Customers can get access to Sun's Solaris 8 source code for a $75 media fee. The Solaris 8 binaries are available immediately. Sun plans to have the Solaris 8 source code available in early Summer. Program details are available at http://www.sun.com/solaris/.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision -- The Network is The Computer™ -- has propelled Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq:SUNW) to its position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that power the Internet and allow companies worldwide to ".com" their businesses. With $13 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than 170 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://www.sun.com.

Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Solaris, HotJava, StarOffice, iPlanet, and The Network Is The Computer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Netscape Navigator is a trademark or registered trademark of Netscape Communications Corporation in the United States and other countries.