Originally published December 27 2005
Sun to give away key software for free
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Sun will give away some of its key software to customers to advance its popularity. The Java Enterprise System and other software will now be free. Earlier in the year Sun made its Solaris 10 operating system free, as well.
Sun Microsystems Inc. said Wednesday that it will give some of its key software to customers for free, hoping to catapult its popularity with businesses and developers.
The Menlo Park company will no longer charge for the Java Enterprise System, along with some other programs, marking a big financial gamble for a company that has struggled financially in recent years.
To make money, Sun executives said they are banking on customers paying for support and services for the various programs, which are used for everything from managing business software to e-mail to making data from different sources compatible.
Jonathan Schwartz, Sun's president, said the free offer would expand Sun's reach to as many users as possible, in effect getting the company's foot in the door for future business.
He denied that the strategy could eviscerate the company's revenues -- which are heavily reliant on selling servers -- and instead emphasized that big corporations are invariably willing to pay for support and services for software they use in case it needs fixing or upgrades.
The decision to give away the Java Enterprise System and the other software follows an earlier move this year by Sun to make its Solaris 10 operating system available for free.
In addition to making various software products free on Wednesday, Sun said it will further embrace the open source model, giving away the source code to software so that developers can customize code, make fixes and create new programs.
Some customers have preferred the open source model, saying that it keeps them from being locked into a single provider, such as Microsoft, whose software code is proprietary.
The Java Enterprise System, which costs $140 per user per year, was generating roughly $100 million a year in revenue for a company that had $11.1 billion in revenue fiscal year 2005.
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