Date: Mon, 07 Feb 2000 10:19:28 +0100


  Computergram

+ 40% of Solairs 8 Customers Are New Converts Says Sun

By Gavin Clarke 

Sun Microsystems Inc has claimed an early victory in its 
campaign against newer versions of Unix, saying 40% of online 
requests for Solaris 8 , the latest release of its operating 
system, are from new converts unable to afford the previous 
price tag or frustrated by rivals' stance on Unix. 

Sun said that these requests for Solaris 8, launched just three 
weeks ago, are from customers attracted by the fact this latest 
version is free when downloaded from the web. The operating 
system, which is due to ship February 28, is also available out 
of the box for $75, which covers the cost of CDs and 
instruction materials. Remaining requests are thought to be 
from existing Solaris customers that wish to upgrade from 
previous versions of the software. 

The Palo Alto, California-based company revealed the findings 
of its latest research at last week's Banc of America 
Securities Technology Week 2000 conference in San Francisco. 
Sun said interest had come users on the Intel platform and Unix 
users who were frustrated by IBM Corp's and Hewlett-Packard 
Co's current Unix strategies. 

IBM is a member of Project Monterey, the joint development 
effort with Santa Cruz Organization Inc and Sequent Computer 
Systems Inc to build 32-bit and 64-bit low-cost Unix for the 
Intel platform. Project Monterey has yet to deliver product and 
Anil Gadre, Solaris Software vice president and general 
manager, said this had left potential customers feeling 
abandoned leaving a space for Sun to offer its own low-cost 
alternative. 

"People feel abandoned by HP and IBM on Unix. The best thing 
IBM does for us is that every three years it decides on a new 
strategy," he said, referring to the development time Monterey 
has taken since was first announced. 

Gadre said requests had also come from potential customers who 
would otherwise have installed Linux but who wanted a proven, 
fully featured and scalable operating system. By making Solaris 
8 free Sun expects to head of criticism the company had done 
little to fend off the growing challenge from Linux as a web 
server operating system last year. "Some interest is coming 
from people who would otherwise run Linux. Now they can see 
Solaris is free and it includes Apache Server and Sendmail," 
Gadre said. 

Latest figures from analyst IDC said sales of Linux surpassed 
those of all other Unix variants in 1999, notching up 25% of 
the market compared to 15% for other combined flavors, and 
Linux took second place behind Microsoft Corp's Windows NT 
which took 38% of market. By giving Solaris away for free, Sun 
hopes to achieve its strategy of "volume" shipments, taking the 
operating system into small and medium-sized enterprises, 
low-end and consumer arenas. Sun plans to offset revenue loss 
by focusing on services, like support, for desktop and server 
users, a strategy backed by analysts who last week called Sun a 
"strong buy" proposition.