Sun Announces Open Source Community Innovation Awards Program

Business Wire, Dec 5, 2007

Multi-Year Program Expected to Payout Millions to Foster Global Community-Based Innovation

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq:JAVA), today announced a multi-year program called the Open Source Community Innovation Awards Program, which will foster innovation and recognize some of the most interesting initiatives within Sun-sponsored open source communities worldwide. To participate in the program's first year, Sun has selected six communities: GlassFish(TM), NetBeans(TM), OpenJDK(TM), OpenOffice.org, OpenSolaris(TM) and OpenSPARC(TM). Prizes are expected to total at least $1 million (USD) a year.

Beginning in mid-January 2008, Sun and the six open source communities will announce details on how developers can participate in the individual programs. Each community will have its own contest rules and judging criteria. Prize winners will be announced in August 2008.

"Developer communities are at the heart of tech industry innovation and are Sun's lifeblood," said Jonathan Schwartz, CEO and President of Sun Microsystems. "Every software product at Sun -- literally billions of dollars in assets -- is going free and open source, and fueling the communities and innovation around these technologies is our top priority. I can't wait to see the creativity, passion, and vibrancy of the program's participants."

About Sun and Open Source

Sun Microsystems made a public commitment to Free and Open Source software (FOSS) and in doing so has contributed billions of dollars, as well as more code, to Free software than any other organization in the public or private sector. In addition to leveraging many industry-wide open source projects, Sun has taken the unique step of opening its core software, hardware and storage technologies and sharing them as Free and open source. This action enables Sun to build its products through the preferred means of co-production and to grow the potential market for Sun products and services by directly attracting users to a free platform, while allowing developers the freedom to identify new opportunities and therefore new markets for the technologies.

For more information about Sun's open source projects visit: sun.com/opensource

To follow contest updates and major developments, visit: http://www.sun.com/opensource/awards

GlassFish Community

The GlassFish project is Sun's implementation of the Java(TM) EE 5 application server and a community dedicated to building an industrial strength, high performance, compatible Java EE application server as free and open source software. GlassFish is dual-licensed under the Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL) and the GNU General Public License (GPL) with the Classpath exception. Since its introduction in 2005, the GlassFish community has grown to more than 1,800 registered members and the application servers has been downloaded more than three million times. https://glassfish.dev.java.net/

NetBeans Community

NetBeans is a Sun-sponsored open source project that develops the NetBeans IDE, a full-featured integrated development environment with support for Java development as well as C/C , JavaScript(TM) and Ruby language support, including best-of-breed support for Ruby on Rails. The NetBeans open source project also develops the NetBeans platform, a generic desktop application that provides services common to almost all large desktop applications: window management, menus, settings and storage, an update manager, and file access. The NetBeans community has experienced more than 16 million downloads to date and a 300 percent increase in email list subscribers during the past three years. NetBeans is dual licensed with CDDL and GPL v2 with Classpath exception. http://netbeans.org

OpenJDK Community

The OpenJDK project, which was started in 2006, is Sun's open source implementation of the Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE) specification, and an open source community for the ongoing development of the foundational technology powering the Internet. Within the OpenJDK Community, developers gather to collaborate on the open source JDK code base and related projects. Through the OpenJDK project, developers can directly influence the future of the Java platform and participate with their peers. The OpenJDK code base is licensed as free software under the GPLv2 for the Java HotSpot Virtual Machine, and GPLv2 plus the Classpath exception for the class libraries and other APIs. http://openjdk.java.net/

OpenOffice.org Community

OpenOffice.org is a multiplatform and multilingual office suite and an open source project that was initiated by Sun Microsystems in 2000. Compatible with all other major office suites and licensed under LGPL, the product is free to download, use, and distribute, for any purpose, private or commercial. OpenOffice.org uses the ODF as its native file format and it fully supports other common file formats (including Microsoft Office). OpenOffice.org is available in more than 100 languages and has been downloaded more than 100 million times. http://openoffice.org