mullen@mpm.itd.nrl.navy.mil (Preston Mullen) (09/23/89)
Since Sun has decided to push SPARCware (tm) as a generic concept and has even licensed SunOS to other companies (e.g., Solbourne), will Sun put this principle to the ultimate test by licensing unbundled Sun software directly to an end user of one of these ABI-compatible machines? For example, could an end user buy a license from Sun to use Sun's new C++ product (with special dbx and dbxtool), or its X.400 mailer, or NSE, or SunPaint, on a Solbourne? Similarly, will Sun extend its SunOS update licensing agreement to allow SunOS updates to be used on non-Sun machines (as long as the appropriate fee is paid, just as if the machine were a Sun)? Some potential compatibility problems with Solbourne (and, I presume, other vendors to come) are that they don't quite offer a complete SunOS (a few things that are on the SunOS tapes are missing from their OS/MP, e.g. dbxtool and mailtool), they don't offer many of Sun's unbundled software products (and so far haven't promised that they will), they haven't been too swift about tracking Sun's dot-dot releases, and it isn't obvious to what extent Solbourne will re-license the new Sun software due out over the next year or so. Being able to buy Sun's software directly from Sun and to run most SunOS application program updates would help ensure compatibility with an installed base of Sun machines. Preston Mullen Information Technology Division Naval Research Laboratory P.S. We don't have a Solbourne. I'd be interested in hearing directly from people who do. Most requests to this list for Solbourne experiences seem to go unanswered.