December 5, 2007; 08:24 AM
SANTA CLARA, CA December 5, 2007 Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq:
JAVA), today announced a multi-year program called the Open Source
Community Innovation Awards Program, which will foster innovation and
recognize some of the most interesting initiatives within Sun-sponsored
open source communities worldwide. To participate in the program's
first year, Sun has selected six communities: GlassFish, NetBeans,
OpenJDK, OpenOffice.org, OpenSolaris and OpenSPARC. Prizes are expected
to total at least $1 million (USD) a year.
Beginning in mid-January 2008, Sun and the six open source communities
will announce details on how developers can participate in the
individual programs. Each community will have its own contest rules and
judging criteria. Prize winners will be announced in August 2008.
"Developer communities are at the heart of tech industry innovation
and are Sun's lifeblood," said Jonathan Schwartz, CEO and President of
Sun Microsystems. "Every software product at Sun -- literally billions
of dollars in assets -- is going free and open source, and fueling the
communities and innovation around these technologies is our top
priority. I can't wait to see the creativity, passion, and vibrancy of
the program's participants."
About Sun and Open Source
Sun Microsystems made a public commitment to Free and Open Source
software (FOSS) and in doing so has contributed billions of dollars, as
well as more code, to Free software than any other organization in the
public or private sector. In addition to leveraging many industry-wide
open source projects, Sun has taken the unique step of opening its core
software, hardware and storage technologies and sharing them as Free
and open source. This action enables Sun to build its products through
the preferred means of co-production and to grow the potential market
for Sun products and services by directly attracting users to a free
platform, while allowing developers the freedom to identify new
opportunities and therefore new markets for the technologies.
For more information about Sun's open source projects visit: sun.com/opensource
To follow contest updates and major developments, visit: http://www.sun.com/opensource/awards
GlassFish Community
The GlassFish project
is Sun's implementation of the Java EE 5 application server and a
community dedicated to building an industrial strength, high
performance, compatible Java EE application server as free and open
source software. GlassFish is dual-licensed under the Common
Development and Distribution License (CDDL) and the GNU General Public
License (GPL) with the Classpath exception. Since its introduction in
2005, the GlassFish community has grown to more than 1,800 registered
members and the application servers has been downloaded more than three
million times.
NetBeans Community
NetBeans is a Sun-sponsored open
source project that develops the NetBeans IDE, a full-featured
integrated development environment with support for Java development as
well as C/C++, JavaScript and Ruby language support, including
best-of-breed support for Ruby on Rails. The NetBeans open source
project also develops the NetBeans platform, a generic desktop
application that provides services common to almost all large desktop
applications: window management, menus, settings and storage, an update
manager, and file access. The NetBeans community has experienced more
than 16 million downloads to date and a 300 percent increase in email
list subscribers during the past three years. NetBeans is dual licensed
with CDDL and GPL v2 with Classpath exception.
OpenJDK Community
The OpenJDK project,
which was started in 2006, is Sun's open source implementation of the
Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE) specification, and an open
source community for the ongoing development of the foundational
technology powering the Internet. Within the OpenJDK Community,
developers gather to collaborate on the open source JDK code base and
related projects. Through the OpenJDK project, developers can directly
influence the future of the Java platform and participate with their
peers. The OpenJDK code base is licensed as free software under the
GPLv2 for the Java HotSpot Virtual Machine, and GPLv2 plus the
Classpath exception for the class libraries and other APIs.
OpenOffice.org Community
OpenOffice.org is a multiplatform
and multilingual office suite and an open source project that was
initiated by Sun Microsystems in 2000. Compatible with all other major
office suites and licensed under LGPL, the product is free to download,
use, and distribute, for any purpose, private or commercial.
OpenOffice.org uses the ODF as its native file format and it fully
supports other common file formats (including Microsoft Office).
OpenOffice.org is available in more than 100 languages and has been
downloaded more than 100 million times.
OpenSolaris Community
OpenSolaris is an open source
project created by Sun Microsystems in 2005 to build a developer
community around the Solaris OS. It is aimed at developers, system
administrators and users who want to develop and improve operating
systems. As of November 2007, there are more than 80,000 community
members registered on OpenSolaris.org. The OpenSolaris User Group
community is an active and growing collaboration with dozens of
OpenSolaris technology communities and projects being created on
opensolaris.org.
OpenSPARC Community
OpenSPARC is an open source
community that fosters the creation of tools and derivative chip
designs based on Sun's UltraSPARC T1 CMT processors. The community
includes Linux distributions from both Gentoo and Ubuntu, as well as
FreeBSD, which support UltraSPARC T1 CMT Microprocessors. SimplyRISC
has produced a derivative design of the OpenSPARC T1 that is one core
and four thread and includes a Wishbone interface. Since its
introduction in 2006, there have been more than 6,000 OpenSPARC T1
hardware downloads and more than 4,000 OpenSPARC T1 software downloads.
About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Sun Microsystems develops the technologies that power the global
marketplace. Guided by a singular vision -- "The Network is the
Computer" -- Sun drives network participation through shared
innovation, community development and open source leadership. Sun can
be found in more than 100 countries and on the Web at http://sun.com.