Sun has been responsible for the single largest corporate investment in open source software to date.
Sun's actively funded and well supported OSS projects are at the core of the community.
http://www.sun.com/software/opensource/learnmore.jsp
A short list, seriously:
- GlassFish
- GNOME
- Grid Engine
- JavaDB
- java.net
- Jini Network Technology
- JXTA Technology
- Linux
- Mobile & Embedded
- PostgreSQL
- Project Darkstar
- Project Fortress
- Project LookingGlass
- Project Woodstock
- Roller
- VirtualBox
- X.Org
The players
Sun Microsystems
Sun has been an advocate and champion of open innovation driving networked computing. Their recent direction seems to clarify who they are . . .
- Green Computing - http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/environment/products/intro.jsp
- Open Source Software - of course
- Security - http://www.sun.com/security/
- Open Standards - http://www.sun.com/software/standards/
- Open Storage - http://www.sun.com/storage/openstorage
Let's not forget . . .
- The network is the computer
- The dot in dot com http://www.denounce.com/dotcom.html
- Java
Oracle
The business of Oracle is built around proprietary software licensing. It is a company not known for its sponsorship of the open source community. Oracle is more focused on very tactical investments in open source. http://oss.oracle.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation
The details
There has been a lot of commotion around Oracle's recent bid on Sun Microsystems. Oracle is in the process of purchasing Sun for $7.4 billion, which includes Sun's $1.8 billion in debt. With this acquisition Oracle will be purchasing Java, Solaris, a bunch of hardware and virtualization tools, which will all synergize with Oracle's current state to provide a projected increase of $1.5 billion in revenue in the first year and over $2 billion in the second year.
But let’s put business aside for a second. The proprietary software and increase revenues aside, what will happen to all of the open source components of Sun, especially MySQL which is a competitor with the Oracle database?
Please read the rest at WAZI . . .
Attribution
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
http://olex.openlogic.com/wazi/attributions-licensing/
About Airius
Airius is a specialized research consultancy, focusing in solutions, strategy and analytics around the use of open source software for business and government. Contact Airius at info@airius.com.
References:
http://ab-at-sun.blogspot.com/2008/01/sun-is-largest-enterprise-contributor.html
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=16598
http://gigaom.com/2009/04/20/oracle-to-buy-sun-for-74-billion/
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Gardner/?p=2903
http://marketing.openoffice.org/planet/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10223090-16.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=TheOpenRoad
http://lmaugustin.typepad.com/lma/2009/04/oracle-buys-java-and-mysql-for-free.html
http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/opensource/oracle-open-source-faq.html
https://fossbazaar.org/content/free-puppies