Open Source Guru Says Sun's Starting To Get It

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February 04, 2000 (1:59 PM EST)

Open Source Guru Says Sun's Starting To Get It

By Mo Krochmal,

NEW YORK -- Bruce Perens, a key player in the development of the concept of open software, said Sun Microsystems deserves credit on recent open source announcements.

"They are seeing the light," Perens said Friday.

Perens is the primary author of the "Open Source Definition," and has been involved in the Linux movement as project leader for Debian Linux and now as the head of a venture capital fund investing in open source software start-ups.

The open source movement, with the explosive growth of the Linux operating system as its critical fuel, is changing the model for selling software. And companies like Sun, with huge investments in building and protecting the code they have developed, are exploring new ways to sell their products while exposing the underlying source code -- the set of instructions that make software work and that are normally available to users.

This week at the LinuxWorld Expo, Sun announced TradeMark Computer Products will make and sell a server that will use Sun's UltraSparc processor and run the Linux operating system, expanding what was formerly a proprietary platform to now use open source software.

Sun is also offering Solaris, its version of the Unix operating system, free. Sun has open source-released office productivity suites as well as other of its products. But Sun has not completely freed any of its intellectual property and has been particularly guarded with the Java programming language it has developed.

"Sun is moving slowly, and cautiously," Perens said.

Sun opened up its code originally under what it calls its Sun Community Source Licensing program, which protected its intellectual property by allowing its code to be more freely used but requiring payment of royalites for any commercial products developed.

"It thrilled Sun's customers, but it didn't get them new customers," Perens said. "You have to grow or you die, so they bought-in on open source."

Sun has a new model it calls Industry Standards Source License that lets developers modify and distribute source code and derived binaries freely. Developers can choose to keep their modifications confidential or make them public.

"It will probably go through a couple of iterations based on language," Perens said. "It needs to be understandable by programmers -- who are not attorneys."

According to Sun, the license has requirements designed to prevent divergence from the standards referenced in the license. If developers deviate from the standards, they must provide a public description and a public reference implementation of those deviations. This allows commercial vendors to integrate and extend the technology covered under the license into their products without the need to disclose their proprietary implementations.

"We're hoping this is a trail balloon for Java," Perens said. "Developers are worried about Sun's iron fist."