Sun Opens Up

For years, Sun Microsystems was synonymous with "open" computing. It was Sun's Solaris operating system, more than others, that was based on open industry standards, a point CEO Scott McNealy made almost every time he opened his mouth back in the '90s. But in the new world of software, "open" refers to publicly available code, as in open source, and Sun's a latecomer, not a leader. McNealy and crew are anxious to change that--if only millions of customers and developers will join them.

Sun launched its Linux counterstrategy earlier this month with the release of OpenSolaris, a version of Solaris 10 that gives everyone from Joe Developer to Microsoft's chief software architect hands-on access to the operating system's kernel, libraries, and commands.