Open Sources | Rodrigues & Urlocker » Sun contemplating more GPL (does it matter?)

April 30, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Sun contemplating more GPL (does it matter?)

TAGS: Open Source

BusinessWeek says Sun is mulling a deeper open source dive. I think it's great that Sun continues to push further into OSS, but the issue with Solaris isn't the license. The technology is good--often even superior, but it just doesn't have the force behind it.

Even if Sun takes the GPL plunge with Solaris, many industry observers say it may be too little, too late. "They're moving in the right direction," says Jim Zemlin, president of the Linux Foundation, an industry group that counts the major computer suppliers among its members and pays Linux creator Linus Torvalds' salary. "The question is, How fast can they move? Solaris is great technology and has a large ecosystem. But the Linux community has critical mass," says Zemlin.

Irony indeed...

The irony, of course, is that if Sun had done all this a decade ago, it might have avoided many of its current problems, perhaps even positioned Solaris where Linux is today. Some gadflies at Sun were advocating for open-sourcing Solaris in the '90s, but it never got done. "The debate at Sun hasn't been about whether we should do it or not, it's been about how we should do it," says Phipps. "Those are the questions that bog Sun down." Maybe settling the debate will help get the growth engine revved back up.

Posted by Dave Rosenberg on April 30, 2007 10:21 AM

RATE THIS ARTICLE: