Sun warms to open source for Solaris

Sun bought UNIX code outright: Solaris IS a dirivative of UNIX and unless they pull out every line of UNIX code before handing it out they will run into huge problems. (Law suits from everywhere.)

Actually you have that wrong. UNIX SYS V is a derivative of SunOS ... Sun did the merge of BSD and UNIX which became SYS V. Sun protected itself from exactly what you describe by buying outright from USL the rights to UNIX to avoid paying royalties and indemnify itself from future IP related claims.

So, is there something in Solaris which Sun would be better off rewriting rather than chance an IP suit like you point out - probaly. Could Sun pull that out ... you bet.

Solaris is SUN's product and the cost of going it alone in R&D vs. the benefit of getting others to contribute is the decision point here. They could even want to see their core OS value add get moved into LINUX so they can then position their higher layer applications and functionality run accross multiple OS and HW.

Who knows, they might even let MS use the IP in Windows! The settlement with MS gives MS the right to steal Sun's IP without real penalties, so why not level the field and let IBM and HP and ... pull the OS in as well. Then Sun can focus on what it does well (systems and solutions) without having to carry the cost of sustaining the OS by itself.; Posted by: oldskool Posted on: 06/02/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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Thanks for agreeing... No_Ax_to_Grind | 06/02/04

Just a thought mabricen | 06/02/04

Darwin rkadowns | 06/02/04

No way this works out Mike Cox | 06/02/04

I was going to give this a 7 shallow_diver | 06/02/04

Not Right mabricen | 06/02/04

unless meetoo | 06/02/04

LinuxCAD runs on Solaris SPARC !!! please ignore my post | 06/04/04

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