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I just put in my order for Solaris. $10 for PC platform media, $10 for SPARC platform media and $8.95 for shipping. There is a 3-4 week wait (due to demand they say). Chuck Young wrote: > > No validity is implied. I'm waiting for confirmation myself, but it is an > interesting thought... > > Chuck Young > GTE Internetworking > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > fwd : > [ extracted from TechWeb] > Sun Releases Solaris For Free > (08/10/98; 8:12 p.m. ET) > By Malcolm Maclachlan, TechWeb > > Sun took a dive into the freeware community Monday, > releasing its Solaris operating environment free for > non-commercial use. > > Solaris is Sun's flavor of Unix. Starting Monday, > educators and others who sign an agreement not to use > the software for commercial purposes may download the > environment for free. Solaris normally costs $695, > though educators usually pay only $99 for it, said > Graham Lovell, group marketing manager for education > at Sun. > > The free release of Solaris will accomplish a number > of Sun's goals, Lovell said. First, the company wants > to push Solaris on both Sparc and PC environments. He > said the company was surprised by the growing demand > from people who wanted to run Solaris on PCs. The > plan will also accommodate organizations that want to > upgrade from older versions of Solaris but can't > afford to. > > In addition, Sun (company profile) wants to promote > development for the Solaris platform. However, Lovell > denied the release had anything to do with the growing > popularity of Linux, a free version of Unix that has > gained support from Netscape and Novell. > > "Linux is not the competition," he said. "The > competition is non-Unix operating systems." > > But one analyst disagrees. Larry Augustin, president > of systems vendor VA Research, said Sun's decision to > give away Solaris for non-commercial use has a lot to > do with Linux. "Sun knows that open-source, free > software is biting into them from the bottom of the > market," he said. > > Lovell also declined to identify Microsoft's Windows > NT as the main thrust of the non-Unix competition, > saying only "NT is certainly in that category." > > Solaris is the leading flavor of Unix, according to > studies by International Data Corp., and other > research firms, commanding a 50 percent market share. > However, the Unix market has been eroded by Windows > NT. Sun itself entered the NT business last month, > acquiring application-server vendor NetDynamics. > > The release is good for Unix as a whole, Augustin > said, but is probably not that important overall. Five > years ago, it would have been revolutionary. But > compared to other recent free OS and open-source > efforts, this non-commercial release has a "me-too" > feel, he said. > > What would be revolutionary, he added, is if Sun > released the Solaris source code, which would allow > the company to quickly address the OS's shortcomings, > such as its slow speed on Intel platforms. > > Users of the free Solaris program will receive support > and information through the Solaris Developer > connection program. The Sun website also contains a > directory of free software available for the Solaris > platform. > > ------------------------------ > > *** > Subcription/unsubscription/info requests: send e-mail with subject of > "subscribe", "unsubscribe", or "info" to discuss-request at blu.org *** Subcription/unsubscription/info requests: send e-mail with subject of "subscribe", "unsubscribe", or "info" to discuss-request at blu.org
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