Sun Microsystems Woos Software Developers with Indiana

At its recent analyst conference, Sun's Jonathan Schwartz highlighted the role of Solaris in Sun's new strategy. Sun, with its open sourcing of Solaris and Java, is focusing on fast-growing companies, but it remains to be seen whether open sourcing Solaris will generate revenue.  This article discusses how Sun is now courting software developers.

In another prong of its effort to elevate Solaris to the level of "ubiquity" its Java platform has, Sun Microsystems is courting software developers. PCWorld.com reports the computer maker wants to take Solaris to new market sectors like embedded systems and the desktop.

For project Indiana, Sun will release OpenSolaris binaries. According to PCWorld.com:

The work...is aimed at creating a single CD installation of the basic OS and desktop environment, giving developers the option to install additional software from network repositories....The whole idea behind Indiana is to build more of a developer community around Solaris.

The plan, according to Sun's Ian Murdock, is to eventually create a "two-tiered development model" that moves from Indiana and OpenSolaris to Solaris. The latter, of course, will be aimed at enterprise users.

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