Intellectual-property issues are only one part of Sun's attempt to lure developers to Solaris and highlight the operating system's differences with Linux. The company also wants to build a better community than Linux possesses.
Sun long has been criticised by open-source advocates, including Red Hat, for not releasing its Java software as open source. Sun is unapologetic -- and believes the Java Community Process governance system is more inclusive than that of Linux.
The JCP has "900 participants out there who are happy", Schwartz said, whereas with Linux, there are companies that aren't happy with Linus Torvalds being the gatekeeper who decides what components are added to the mainstream Linux kernel published at kernel.org.
Schwartz suggested that Java is truer than Linux to the open-source development advantages described by The Cathedral and the Bazaar, the manifesto written by Open Source Initiative president Eric Raymond.
"They're frustrated with their inability to get their changes in. They don't get a vote," Schwartz said of companies trying to steer Linux. "That seems awfully cathedral-like as opposed to the bazaar of the JCP."
Torvalds took the criticism in stride. "Hey, he can ding me however much he wants; I'm OK with that. I'll just wait to see what he actually does as opposed to what he says," Torvalds said via email.
And Torvalds doesn't discount Sun's open-source efforts. "I'll be really happy if Sun ends up being a good open-source player," he said. "They have a great history from the 80s. Let's see if they can actually get back to it."
JCP executive committee members are elected (aside from Sun, which has a permanent seat). The group announced results of its annual executive committee elections Tuesday. Among other changes, Google and JBoss won three-year terms on the committee governing Java for PCs and servers.
To build the open-source Solaris community, Sun will draw on the JCP model but provide more freedoms to developers, Schwartz said.
Java has a "broad community, but a constraint: You must be compatible to redistribute. Linux is much freer, but there is a single [distribution] conduit: Kernel.org and Linus," Schwartz said. The Solaris community will have "aspects of the JCP, with freedom to proliferate whatever way you want with the Linux model".
Because of that freedom "Sun may not be in control of the evolution of Solaris in the long run," Schwartz said.
Solaris source code is not likely to be as unfettered as that of Linux, though, Ferrell predicts. "I expect there's going to be more formality," perhaps click-through licensing agreements or a developer registration process, Ferrell said. "Larger corporations are more interested in maintaining a more formal licensing programme."
Torvalds may or may not be dictatorial in his governance of Linux. Regardless, there's no denying that the open-source effort has drawn major participation from companies including IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Oracle, Silicon Graphics and others.
Sun's ambitions with Solaris extend beyond that, though, Schwartz said. "We're going to build a more durable, higher-integrity community than anybody else."
