Zander, who 10 years ago ran Sun's software group and led the introduction of Solaris, touted Sun's software expertise, which he said is often overlooked given Sun's hardware focus. But with each purchase order, Zander divides up revenue and assigns it to hardware and software categories, he said. "If we ever did report revenue for software business, you'd be stunned. We'd be one of the largest software companies on the planet today," Zander said. "People say you buy a Sun server and get Solaris for free. No, you don't," Zander said. "The hardware is free as far as I'm concerned; we just charge $200,000 for Solaris." Zander is retiring from Sun, though he's staying through the end of the year to help the company transition. He said in an interview he still doesn't know what he wants to do next. "I have no idea. I wouldn't tell you if I did," he quipped. "But I will tell you the truth: I don't" have an idea. He and his wife have purchased land back on the East Coast, where Zander was born, educated and first employed. "It's our home," he said, while noting he owns property in Carmel, California, as well. "When the Red Sox win the World Series, I'll move back to Boston." Boosting Liberty
Solaris 9 includes a directory server integrated into the heart of Solaris, boosting performance to five times what Solaris 8 could muster, said Anil Gadre, vice president and general manager of Solaris. Directory servers are used to store information such as usernames and passwords. The directory server integration will help boost use of the forthcoming Liberty Alliance Project's single sign-on specification. The specification will let a computer user log on to a server once, then have other servers recognise that user as authenticated. Microsoft already offers a single sign-on technology called Passport. Sun convinced United Airlines, Sony, Fidelity Investments, AOL Time Warner and others to co-develop its specification. The Liberty specification will be released in late June, said Jonathan Schwartz, who will take over Sun's software operation from Pat Sueltz on 1 July.
See the Software News Section for the latest headlines on everything from peer to peer clients to Office software and beyond.
Have your say instantly, and see what others have said. Go to the ZDNet news forum.
Let the editors know what you think in the Mailroom.
