OpenSolaris — what it means for you

As Chief Technology Evangelist at Sun Microsystems, Simon Phipps is charged with explaining the big picture of connected computing solutions. Today, the biggest picture in his gallery is the OpenSolaris project. He is bringing his 20-plus years of industry experience to the efforts of open source communities worldwide.

Phipps recently sat down with Inner Circle to discuss Sun's open source strategy, how it affects the way Sun does business, and why OpenSolaris benefits Sun, Sun's partners, developers, and customers.

Inner Circle (IC): What is the difference between Solaris and OpenSolaris?

Simon Phipps (SP): Solaris is an operating system with all the traditional values that you expect from Sun: security, reliability, scalability, maintainability, and serviceability. It is also what ISVs certify their applications against for compatibility. The OpenSolaris project is an open source community where there are software craftspeople who are working on the Solaris source code. So when we open sourced Solaris in June, we were taking the source code of Solaris and sharing it with the OpenSolaris community. In the future, the Solaris operating system will be derived from the OpenSolaris code base.

IC: With the OpenSolaris project, Sun is open sourcing its flagship product. Does Sun plan to open source its entire software stack?

SP: During his JavaOne keynote, Jonathan Schwartz said that Sun is planning on open sourcing as many of its software assets as possible. Basically, open source is a very natural way of developing software. And, if you look back at the 24-year history of Sun, you'll see that Sun has often developed software using an "open room" approach, sharing the source in public. For example, Sun used the open room approach with NFS and, more recently, with the Java platform during the 1990s.

IC: How does the open room approach translate to the open source approach?

SP: There are two ways you can develop software: You can hire all the smart people, lock them in a room and tell them they can't come out until they have written great software. Or, as Bill Joy said, you can recognize that you can't hire all of the smart people, that some of them work elsewhere and you need to open the room and invite them in to participate in the development and growth of the technology. Sun is gradually moving to a place where it is using open source licenses to formalize the open room approach to software development.

IC: What impact will the open source approach have on the way Sun does business?

SP: People do often ask: If you give everything away, how are you going to make money? That is based on a misconception of open source. The open source approach is to create a software commons and to give software developers everywhere unrestricted access to this commons. If you are a software developer, it's free (as in no charge), and we are giving absolutely everything away to you free (as in freedom).

However, if you are not a software developer then it may not be the case that you can get the benefit you are looking for with open source. The Solaris 10 Operating System is available from sun.com, and can be installed on whatever machines you want, and it is completely free of charge. Responsible CIOs are going to want to ensure that they have the promises — the service and support 3 necessary to keep the operating system in production, so will purchase the service packages Sun offers for Solaris. We have some very competitively priced service packages for Solaris. Removing the cost barrier for the operating system has then liberated Sun to be able to share the source code of that operating system with the open source community.

IC: Is making the RTU free, enough of an incentive for developers?

SP: There is quite a big difference between free of charge and free of encumbrances. The Solaris Operating System is free of charge, an attribute that we choose to give to create a great value proposition for our customers. OpenSolaris is free of encumbrances for our open source developers, so we can help create an open source community that adds ongoing value to our company.

IC: How will people participate in the OpenSolaris project?

SP: There are three main groups of people who we anticipate will participate in the OpenSolaris community. First, OpenSolaris code developers who want to create a UNIX distribution based on the OpenSolaris code. These are people who want to produce custom versions of a kernel or user local area network or network services. So the first group is developers with an interest in getting their hands on code, either to fulfill a business or a hobby interest.

IC: And the second group?

SP: The second group is those who want to create device drivers or create software that runs on the Solaris platform. These people may derive benefit from the source code or from the engineers in the OpenSolaris community who create and maintain the source code.

IC: And the last group?

SP: The group is large-scale deployers of Solaris who want to get involved with OpenSolaris community. These people will find it very helpful to have access to experts who can diagnose production issues. Or they may find benefit in contributing to the operating system — detecting defects or making suggestions for enhancements.

All three groups can go to opensolaris.org, where they can engage directly with engineers around the world who are experts in the Solaris Operating System and the code that creates it.

IC: How do you explain the momentum behind open source?

SP: Open source is a virtuous cycle. Creating a source commons and sharing code among a group of developers creates reciprocal value. The software is used and maintained by a group of developers who build products, create offerings, and compose works that are of value to them and may be of social value and perhaps they are paid for creating those products and offerings. What is more, in the process of creating those things, the software craftspeople contribute innovation and value back into the source code commons that everyone is relying on.

IC: How does this virtuous cycle reflect the values at Sun?

SP: That virtuous cycle is motivated by the desire for improvement. And, the motive to keep development costs to a minimum serves everybody in the cycle. The Sun approach to the computer industry has been marked by a desire to create markets in which Sun can be successful and profitable. Sun does not believe that the way to be successful is to kill the competition and create a monopoly. Sun believes that if you create markets and you have a share in those markets, you can keep those markets growing, and your profitability and success will continue to grow.

For Sun, the open source model is an extremely natural vehicle for business success and ongoing innovation. The more people that join, the more potential there is for all of the participants to derive value from the shared work that everyone is collaborating on. For Sun, the open source message is a very natural 21st century expression of how Sun has been doing business for more than 20 years.

Summary

For Sun, participating in open source is natural and reflects well on Sun's observation that we are entering a Participation Age in which sharing is the key to business success. Sharing is not purely about philanthropy — it's also about creating communities that mutually benefit each other as they work on their stated objectives.