Update on Sun joining Linux International

Barry de la Rosa wrote in to sun to ask for more info on their recent announcement that they are joining Linux International. Hit the link below to read their PR Statement...

First and foremost, Sun sees joining LI as an opportunity to foster further innovation in the UNIX space, especially in University and research facilities, which typically have more freedom to experiment and innovate than commercial markets. We encourage such innovations and look forward to incorporating some of these innovations into future versions of Solaris. In addition, we support all efforts to increase the exposure to UNIX in all areas, especially the educational and research environments.

Q. What will your principal activity be within LI?

A. David's role on the LI board will be to ensure that the Linux UltraSPARC ports are up-to-date; Sun's role is to ensure that the members of LI can take advantage of the very latest features of UltraSPARC processors. Chief among these are the VIS instruction extensions for graphics, encryption, compression and I/O performance. We also want to ensure that Linux can take full advantage of all of the performance boosting capabilities of the Sun UPA (Ultra Port Architecture) cross-bar switch.

Finally, we want to ensure that all of the latest device drivers are up to date and we want to foster compatibility between Solaris and Linux device drivers at the DDI/DKI interface level (Device Driver Interface and Driver Kernel Interface).

Q. Would Sun ever consider releasing software under an Open Source licence, a la Netscape?

A. We believe that licensing is critical to maintaining the integrity of software; for example, while Java is free, Sun licenses it to ensure the standard is maintained and the software is not corrupted.

Q. Would you consider (as suggested on /.) releasing a distibution of Linux on your machines as a cheap, low end solution?

A. Sun has always, and will continue, to offer a license for Solaris on all our systems. There are currently no plans to bundle Linux on any systems.

Q. Do you see a coalition forming between the Open Source community and the anti-MS brigade - seeing as both yourselves and Netscape can now count yourselves as members of both - and could this, in conjunction with the DOJ's action, end (or seriously stifle) MS's domination of the OS market?

A. Unfortunately, we cannot comment on any matters relating to the DOJ's actions. However, we do not see any direct correlation between these two.