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Frequently Asked Questions | |
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Frequently Asked Questions: General Open Source
A: SunSource.net is intended to act as a focal point to keep developers informed about where and how Sun is contributing to the free & open source movement. It's like one stop shopping for learning about and engaging with Sun in regard to collaborative software development. Developers can visit SunSource.net to ask Sun questions or to contribute to discussions between Sun and the free & open source communities; thus allowing a lively conversation between developers to emerge. Q: Why does Sun need SunSource.net? Don't you have enough open source sites?A: Yes, we have many open source sites: however, what SunSource.net provides is an entry to all of them and a focal point of information about the different projects. Now anyone who wants to know anything about Sun and open source has one place to go: SunSource.net. All of Sun's free & open source projects can be found at or through SunSource.net, along with news and general information. As time goes on, SunSource.net will act as a portal and grow along with the number and scope of Sun's free & open source projects. There have been many developments between Sun and the various free & open source communities recently, and Sun has emerged as a leader among the traditional technology companies in the area of working cooperatively with individuals and groups devoted to open, collaborative software development. Q: What is the relationship between Sun and CollabNet?A: This is the fourth open source development website in which Sun has worked with CollabNet -- Netbeans.org for development tools, OpenOffice.org for office productivity applications (and the largest open source contribution to date), Jxta.org for distributed computing protocols, and now SunSource.net to act as the focal point for discussions between and about Sun and the free & open source communities. Q: Why have you worked with CollabNet?A: CollabNet is a leader in collaborative software development solutions based on open source concepts and provides key infrastructure support and consulting for community software projects. Working with Collabnet, Sun launched the NetBeans and OpenOffice.org communities in 2000. And in April of 2001 Sun engaged CollabNet to help create a community around Project Jxta. The CollabNet SourceCast platform provides a comprehensive Web-based development environment that enables geographically dispersed groups of developers to collaborate of software projects. SourceCast includes tools for revision control, issue tracking, mailing list creation and management, Web-based administration, and custom branding and content. Q: Why doesn't SunSource.net have the same "look & feel" of Sun.com?A: We designed SunSource.net to have its own personality and identity, separate from Sun's commercial efforts but closely associated at the same time to encourage the development of a community by engaging talented programmers on both sides of the firewall. A key point to free & open source software development is that "community" extends to wherever good developers may be. We find that discussion and communication are vital best practices in thriving free & open source communities. Q: Why was Collabnet's SourceCast system ported to Solaris for SunSource.net?A: The Solaris 8 Operating Environment (OE) is the leading operating system for UNIX servers and is the highest ranked UNIX OE by D.H. Brown Associates. Sun wanted to bring the power of the Solaris 8 OE to the collaborative, open source software community. CollabNet worked with Sun to port its SourceCast platform to Solaris 8, and Collabnet will continue to offer SourceCast on Solaris OE as an optional platform for its customers. Solaris OE offers developers a highly scalable platform for collaborative, open source software development. Q: Will Jxta.org, OpenOffice.org, and Netbeans.org be ported over to Solaris OE?A: Right now these sites are all hosted on Linux, but now that SourceCast has been ported to Solaris OE for SunSource.net, we'd like to bring to these other open source communities the power and scalability of the Solaris OE. However, we have yet to create a specific timeframe for any migration to occur. Q: Why is Sun doing open source?A: Sun develops standards-based, cross-platform software systems and applications. Open source is an important vehicle for many of the technologies that go into these systems and applications. Sun also participates in open source because it helps spark innovation, improve software quality, and fosters community. Producing open systems has been the hallmark of Sun's business philosophy since its founding. Today, what better avenue for openness is there than open source? Q: Will Sun make Java Technology Open Source?A: Sun's goal is to make Java as open as possible and available to the largest developer community possible. We continue to move in that direction through the Java Community Process (JCP). Sun has published the Java source code, and developers can examine and modify the code. For six years we have successfully been striking a balance between sharing the technology, ensuring compatibility, and considering the needs of a growing installed base of more than 2.5 million Java developers who depend on us. We are certainly evolving Java through the JCP to a model that works for all involved but that also ensures compatibility. Cross-platform compatibility has always been the key to Java's success and integrity; a notion we feel was protected by Microsoft's agreement in January 2001 to settle the lawsuit regarding Java technology. Q: Does Sun offer open source developer tools?A: Yes. The ForteTM for JavaTM IDE is one of the few development tools that is cross-platform compatible, enabling development on the Solaris Operating Environment, Linux and Windows platforms. This gives developers a consistent development platform across operating environments. For example, a developer can prototype an application on one platform and deploy it on another, providing tremendous flexibility for large IT organizations, ISVs and systems integrators. The Forte for Java development environment features a modular architecture based on an open source framework (www.netbeans.org), supporting entry-level to enterprise-class developers. Sun recently shipped release 2.0 of Forte for Java. New features include support for JSPs, transparent persistence and team development. Q: Can you explain your licensing strategy?A: Overall, Sun's goal is to make our technology source code as open as possible to the largest developer audience, to lower the barriers to entry, and to seed the market. We're continuing to evolve our licensing models to meet this goal. We believe that the issues around different licensing models are based upon stewardship: who will take ownership and responsibility for evolving the technology in the appropriate manner. Sun sees four different levels of stewardship: Public Source, Standards Source, Community Source, and Proprietary.
A: Generally, Sun will focus efforts in three areas. First, Sun will continue to engage the Linux and free& open source communities, participating in more Linux-related open source projects, and contributing additional software. Second, we will sell and support even more Sun products on the Linux environment. Third, we will further improve compatibility and commonality across Linux and Solaris. Q: Has Sun had to change to successfully work with the open source community?A: Aside from a gradual evolution natural to any large company, Sun has worked for years to set up and engage in collaborative software development processes. Recognizing that "innovation happens elsewhere," we have evolved our product planning, scheduling, and development methodology to participate with developers outside of Sun, and to embrace ideas and contributions that come from the community. Sun has turned several internal development efforts into successful open source projects, such as Netbeans.org and OpenOffice.org. Q: What does Sun give back to the open source community?A: Sun is part of the open source community, clearly lives the community lifestyle, and has contributed greatly to the community's overall development. We have hundreds of engineers working on a variety of free and open source projects that benefit the Linux and open source community, such as OpenOffice.org, GNOME.org, Mozilla.org, Jxta.org, and Apache.org. In addition to participating in open source projects, Sun has contributed perhaps more code than any other commercial vendor to the community. The StarOffice source code contributed through OpenOffice.org remains the largest single open source contribution ever. Other notable contributions include the source code for Forte for Java through NetBeans.org, Solaris X Internationalization technology through X.org, and the Solaris TI-RPC networking technology. We also provided Java Server Pages, XML parser technology, and the Batik vector graphics toolkit through Apache.org. We've been a major sponsor for the University of Michigan port of version 4 of the Network File System to Linux. And we recently released Project JXTA -- a language agnostic, platform neutral, open source set of protocols designed to enable distributed network and peer to peer computing.
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