Sun set to end Solaris download program

By Ashlee Vance
IDG

June 27, 2001

SAN FRANCISCO SUN Microsystems has put out the last call for users hoping to download the company's widely used Solaris operating system, as it will end a program Saturday that gave developers free access to the software.

Sun, in Palo Alto, Calif., started its Solaris 8 Foundation Source download program last year, giving customers and software developers a chance to look at the operating system and experiment with making changes to it. Under limited terms of use, the company permitted free downloads of the software from its Web site and also sold the Solaris code on disks for $75.

A note posted on the program's Web site stated that Sun will cancel the Solaris giveaway on June 30. Sun will also shut down a secure chat site and code-exchange service that were part of the program.

Unlike other open-source efforts, Sun did not really use the program to promote improvements to Solaris, but rather to show customers and developers the inner workings of the software, said a Sun spokesman. The software was downloaded more than 2,000 times, according to Sun, and the company decided that most users who would be interested in the program had already taken advantage of it.

More information on the Solaris 8 Foundation Source download program is available at http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/source.

Ashlee Vance is a San Francisco-based reporter at IDG News Service, an InfoWorld affiliate.

Copyright 2001