That was last month. Now it is September. We had a long talk with Tom Riddle of Sun Labs yesterday along with Sun's *new* Solaris on Power Program Manager. The Power port is getting some major attention from Sun - which is *one* reason why the release has been delayed. They will release the code for Power in exactly the same way they (finally) released it for x86. We think it will actually happen next week (we hope we are not re-posting again in a month!
).
What Sun, IBM and others are realizing is that open source software yields better outcomes than proprietary software for both producers and customers. We think the trend will continue. Solaris on Power is a market builder because it means that the universe of people who are prepared to use and enhance their software gets bigger. Sun takes Solaris on Power seriously because there *is* a Power Community. Together, we are doing a good job. Plus, as you may have noticed, Sun has shifted emphasis to serving rather than controlling the user (via license). When all mixed together, "empowerment" sounds good.
The freedom to share code has become more important than the freedom from paying for it. Let's get the participation going!
R&B