Sun Makes Blockbuster Solaris 10 Free of Charge For Commercial Use

Multi-Platform, Vendor-Neutral OS With 600 Innovative New Features Dramatically Changes Playing Field; Move to a Services Subscription Model for Revenue

SANTA CLARA, Calif., November 15, 2004 - At its Network Computing '04Q4 (NC04Q4) launch today, Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) today unveiled the Solaris 10 Operating System (OS). Representing 3,000 engineering years and a $500 USD million-plus R&D investment, Solaris 10 contains more than 600 innovative new features and is the most advanced UNIX(R) operating system ever. Sun plans to make Solaris 10 available for SPARC(R), x86, AMD64 and EM64T systems as a free download by January 31, 2005. Unlike other free distributions which provide only "early access" or "evaluation" free, Sun will provide its commercial grade Solaris 10 product free for deployment. A range of services are available for a fee. Solaris 10 is a vendor-neutral operating system that is supported on more than 270 different hardware platforms from vendors as diverse as Dell, Fujitsu, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, IBM and HP. Sun also unveiled a new advertising campaign and game-changing business model in support of the Solaris 10 launch.

"Operating systems matter now more than ever," said Jonathan Schwartz, president and chief operating officer, Sun Microsystems, Inc. "Solaris 10 is an industry milestone, bar none. This is the result of Sun's huge investment in R&D and demonstrates how superior engineering can deliver real customer advantage. With thousands of customers previewing Solaris 10 as part of the Sun Software Express for Solaris program and more than a half million installations of the product so far, Solaris 10 is the most anticipated product release in the history of Sun."

Designed for modern datacenter workloads, Solaris 10 is the fastest operating system ever released by Sun - more than 40 percent faster than Solaris 9 in web server performance on both SPARC and x86.

Key features include:

1)DTrace - With new diagnostic tools in Solaris 10, developers can quickly zero in on performance issues and hard-to-find bugs so that problems can be diagnosed in milliseconds and minutes, not hours or days.

2)Solaris Containers - Solaris 10 is the only OS to provide multiple software partitions with more than 8000 containers - on one instance of the OS. Resources can be automatically re-allocated, achieving up to 80 percent system utilization.

3)Process Rights Management - Solaris 10 now includes technology from the Trusted Solaris(TM) operating system, widely used for U.S. government secure communications. Process Rights Management uses a more granular privilege use model to help ensure that application vulnerabilities cannot be exploited and lead to widespread system damage.

4)Predictive Self Healing - Solaris 10 can automatically diagnose, isolate and recover from many hardware and application faults to vastly reduce system downtime.

5)Linux Application Environment (previously code named Project Janus) - Solaris 10 will be the only OS to run Solaris and native Linux binaries side-by-side with no modifications, providing customers with investment protection and broader access to applications written for both operating systems.

6)ZFS - With 16 billion billion times more capacity than current 64-bit file systems, ZFS will be the industry's only file system with virtually unlimited storage capacity, helping to make Solaris 10 the industry's best OS for data storage. ZFS can reduce administrative overhead by up to 80 percent and provides provable data integrity with a 99.99999999999999999 percent chance of error detection and correction.

7)Cryptographic Framework - Based on the industry accepted PKCS#11 standard, this new framework enhances performance and centralizes management of cryptographic operations. Application developers can write to a common API, which helps IT organizations protect their investment in applications and helps Sun partners write applications without worrying about the underlying cryptographic implementation.

8)Sun Update Connection - An update service that allows users to analyze the system and stay up-to-date from almost anywhere, the Sun Update Connection provides notifications, enables users to act locally using a single-system updater and deploy remotely using Sun's update portal.

9)AMD64 - Solaris 10 is optimized for AMD Opteron 64-bit processors, providing far greater performance than previously available on low-cost architectures, while continuing to provide binary compatibility between 32-bit and 64-bit environments.

10) Guaranteed Compatibility - Sun offers the Solaris Application Guarantee to ensure that applications written for previous versions of Solaris will run on Solaris 10. Extending backwards compatibility to Solaris 2.6, this guarantee covers an unprecedented seven years of OS releases.

"For more than 18 years, SAS has worked closely with Sun to ensure technology compatibility," said Keith Collins, CTO of SAS. "We are encouraged by the advances Sun is delivering in Solaris 10 and the direction of the company. Our strong, strategic partnership with Sun allows us to work directly with their developers during all stages of development, which means we have not had to make any special changes to SAS for Solaris 10. SAS products are fully optimized and certified to run on the Solaris system making integration of SAS(r)9 and Solaris 10 seamless."

Sun is backing its product innovations with a new business model that is expected to radically redefine the economics of OS licensing. Beginning early next year, Sun will make Solaris 10 available at no charge to customers - moving away from a fee structure and introducing a service-based pricing model. Similar to phone calling plans, the Solaris subscription plans will vary depending on the level of support and network compute capacity that is included (see related announcement today).

Originally launched in 1991, Solaris has become the #1 UNIX operating system. Nearly all of the global Fortune 1000 run Solaris. A growing base of more than 1000 ISVs with more than 12,000 applications enable it to be deployed from the datacenter to the desktop. Solaris 10 will become Sun's flagship distribution for current and future system platforms. Schwartz added, "Solaris 10 firmly establishes us far ahead of the competition. We will make this very clear to the market - our development community, ISVs and partners have a unique advantage over HP and IBM."

Tune into Sun's NC04Q4 web event at www.sun.com/nc and visit our online press kit (http://sun.com/presskits/networkcomputing04q4/) to view all press releases and detailed product launch background.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision -- "The Network Is The Computer" -- has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) to its position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that make the Net work. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://sun.com

Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Solaris, Trusted Solaris, Sun Fire and The Network Is The Computer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All SPARC trademarks are used under license and are trademarks or registered trademarks of SPARC International, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Products bearing SPARC trademarks are based upon an architecture developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, exclusively licensed through X/Open Company, Ltd.

Sun Announces Subscription Services for Solaris 10

Now Offers Solaris 10 for Free and Announces Unprecedented Services

SANTA CLARA, Calif., November 15, 2004 - At its Network Computing '04Q4 (NC04Q4) launch today, Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) announced a revolutionary set of service and support models that will provide customers and partners with a fast, low-risk and cost-effective transition to the new Solaris 10 Operating System (OS). The new services include flexible subscription-based offerings and a comprehensive set of support, migration and education services. Customers and partners will now have free access to the Solaris 10 OS for commercial purposes plus service and support for the Solaris OS that is up to 40 percent less expensive than the leading Linux distribution.

Similar to phone calling plans, the subscription services for the Solaris 10 OS provide customers and partners with choice and flexibility depending on the level of support and service they require. Customers can choose from a right to use (RTU) license for end-users at no cost, as well as basic, standard and premium offerings that offer higher levels of support and value-added services.

"We're radically redefining the economics of operating system licensing for the industry with the new subscription model and services offerings for Solaris 10," said Jonathan Schwartz, president and chief operating officer, Sun Microsystems, Inc. "Customers and partners aren't just buying the raw technology of Solaris when they look at the latest upgrade — they want to know how quickly and painlessly they can leverage the new release for their business advantage. By offering subscriptions for Solaris 10 and tailoring services for them, our customers and partners get the exact solution they need at the price they want."

Today, Sun announced the following subscription services:

• Free right to use (RTU): Includes a RTU license for the Solaris 10 OS for end-user commercial use; security fixes; and update releases via web download. Pricing is $0 USD per central processing unit (CPU) per year with registration.
• Basic Service: Includes all free RTU features plus: all Solaris 10 updates, upgrades and fixes; 90-days installation and configuration support; and one individual online skills self-assessment per system. Pricing is $120 USD per CPU per year.
• Standard Service: Includes all Basic Service features plus: 5x12 phone support; one web course; and optional training credits. Pricing is $240 USD per CPU per year.
• Premium Service: Includes all Standard Service features plus: 7x24 phone support and additional advanced technical and educational services. Pricing is $360 USD per CPU per year.

In addition, through the new Sun Update Connection, subscribers will be able to analyze and update their systems and stay up-to-date from anywhere, all while providing easy access to software baselines and updates. The connection enables users to stay informed with notifications from Sun; act locally using a single-system updater and deploy remotely using our update portal. The Sun Update Connection ensures everyone from the desktop to the enterprise is always up-to-date.

All pricing is based on US list prices for one to four CPU systems. SunSpectrum(SM) Support customers will automatically receive Solaris 10 as part of their existing contract.

Sun Services

Sun's portfolio of Services includes:

• Migration and Performance Services: Customers can use Migration and Performance Services, as well as SunReady(SM) Assessments, to accelerate time-to-value and lower risks of upgrading to Solaris 10. The Migration Services help the customer evaluate, architect and implement the benefits of Solaris 10, as Sun helps make the customer's transition smooth. The Performance Services help the customer obtain improved performance using the capabilities and features of Solaris 10. Whether customers are migrating from another Operating System and/or hardware platform or updating their current Solaris environment, the Solaris 10 OS Services portfolio addresses the Architect, Implement and Manage phases of the process to improve the transition and improve the customer experience.
• Managed Services: Whether customers are upgrading or migrating from another operating system, Sun offers the following services to allow customers to deploy and fully utilize Solaris 10:
• Sun(SM) Interim Operations Management: Sun engineers manage a customer's data center for three to 12 months (in most cases), performing system administration while the on-site IT staff becomes knowledgeable on the new technologies and processes.
• Sun(SM) Site Operations Management: Sun engineers manage a customer's data center operations and are focused on achieving customer-specific service level agreements (SLAs).
• New Education Services: Thousands of customers, partners and developers have already taken part in early access Web- and classroom-based education for Solaris 10 through Sun's extensive education services. Sun now provides a free Web-based Solaris 10 course; free sample Solaris 10 Certification Exam and practice questions; and in-depth Early Advantage instructor led classroom training. Classes include a five-day "Solaris 10 for Experienced Systems Administrators" course and a two-day "Dynamic Performance Tuning and Troubleshooting with DTrace" course.
• Special Programs for Education Customers: Sun offers campuses participating in the Sun Academic Initiative Program courseware at no cost to help prepare students, faculty and staff to become certified in Sun technologies, including the Solaris Operating System.
• SunSpectrum and Software Support Services: Support engineers and technicians can support their Solaris 10 operating system customers and respond to service requests.

For more information about the Solaris 10 Services portfolio, go to www.sun.com/service/solaris10. For education and training resources, go to http://training.sun.com/us/catalog/early_advantage.html. For more information on Sun education services and training, go to http://training.sun.com/US/certification/resources/epractice.html or http://training.sun.com/US/catalog/courses/WGS-PREX-10-QUEST.html For more information on Sun Academic Initiative, go to http://www.sun.com/products-n-solutions/edu/programs/sai

Tune into Sun's NC04Q4 web event at www.sun.com/nc and visit our online press kit (http://sun.com/presskits/networkcomputing04q4/) to view all press releases and detailed product launch background.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision -- "The Network Is The Computer" -- has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) to its position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that make the Net work. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://sun.com

Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun Logo, Solaris, Java and The Network Is The Computer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.