Sun

Sep 11, 2008

Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/23/sun_linux_support/

OSCON Sun Microsystems is putting the "L" back into LAMP with plans to support customers running the open-source Apache, MySQL and Perl or PHP (AMP) stack on Linux.

The company said it plans paid, enterprise-level support for AMP on Linux in the fourth-quarter of 2008, in addition to supporting AMP on its preferred platform, of course, Solaris. Support of AMP on Solaris servers is due this quarter.

Pricing has yet to be determined for either, and follows the launch in February 2007 of Solaris + AMP that saw Sun support AMP in development environments on Solaris. Joe McCabe, Sun's web-tier product manager, told The Reg Sun planned to support other operating systems running the AMP combo. Windows is currently in the pipeline.

Source: Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/23/ubuntu_springframework_glassfish/

OSCON: Exclusive Canonical has been in talks with Sun Microsystems and SpringSource to support one of their open source Java application server stacks in the Ubuntu core, to increase Ubuntu's enterprise adoption.

Canonical told The Reg that it is in the process of selecting which open source Java Enterprise Edition (Java EE) framework to make available in the main part of its popular Linux distro. Sun's streamlined GlassFish 3.0 and the modular Application Platform are contenders.

Canonical's Ubuntu server engineering manager Rick Clark called it: "Very, very important to us to get a full Java stack out of the box."

Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/22/ubuntu_next_launchpad/

OSCON Canonical, Ubuntu's commercial sponsor, next week plans a major update to its massive code hosting and project management platform Launchpad.

Version 2.0 will introduce improved support for third-party application lifecycle tools used to find, report and fix bugs in Ubuntu - plus the applications and 6,000 projects in the ecosystem around it. Canonical has been talking up the new service at the O'Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON).

Launchpad 2.0 will feature a beta version of a planned API that'll allow third-party applications to authenticate, query and modify data in the massive Launchpad database, without a user needing to manually access the system via a browser.

There's no word on final availability, but this is expected with the next update during the next year.

The VAR Guy picked up the phone and dialed Sun Microsystems Inc.’s investor relations department. When the call went to voicemail, he left this message: “Are the rumors true? Is Sun seeking to replace CEO Jonathan Schwartz?” Here’s more on the rumor, and The VAR Guy’s depressing reaction to it.

Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities Research wrote in a newsletter that a “search is probably on to find a new CEO at Sun.” The rumor was picked up today by Barron’s Online. Does that mean current CEO Jonathan Schwartz is about to get the boot? Personally, The VAR Guy hopes not. But professionally, he can understand why Schwartz may be on the ropes.

This quarter was all about constructing the fireworks of the future for Linux vendor Red Hat (NYSE: RHT). You don't see much happening at the moment, but all the ingredients for a massive eruption are there.

In its first quarter of fiscal 2009, Red Hat produced $0.08 of GAAP earnings per share on revenue of $156.6 million. That's a 32% sales increase over last year, while profits held steady. But the numbers don't tell the whole story here.

HP is opening up its Tru64 Advanced File System (AdvFS) to the open source Linux community in a bid to help further Linux file system innovation.

The AdvFS file system, which has its roots in Digital Equipment Corporation's Digital Unix, is used in mission-critical deployments by HP customers. But HP, which gained AdvFS through a series of acquisitions, has its own flavor of Unix, HP-UX, with its own file system.

HP's move to offer AdvFS to the open source community comes as Linux continues moving upstream into deeper mission-critical deployments -- where users often expect certain types of Unix functionality that has yet to become available in mainstream Linux file systems.

Sun has made good on its promise to deliver OpenSolaris, the company's Unix-based answer to Linux, with a company-supported, commercial update arriving in mid-May. Although far from a complete product, the latest OpenSolaris is impressive and in the long run could prove a viable alternative to Linux.

Part of OpenSolaris' appeal is that it contains a subset of the source code for the Solaris Operating System, but with an open source license. Among the familiar Sun features are the enviable DTrace tuning and monitoring tool and the ever-impressive ZFS filesystem, neither of which are likely to make it to Linux due to licensing and personality conflicts.