Editing Sun Microsystems (section)

==Software==
{{plain image with caption|SunSoft logo.svg|Logo of SunSoft, the company's dedicated software division, established in 1991}}
Although Sun was initially known as a hardware company, its software history began with its founding in 1982; co-founder Bill Joy was one of the leading Unix developers of the time, having contributed the [[Vi (text editor)|vi]] editor, the [[C shell]], and significant work developing [[TCP/IP]] and the [[BSD Unix]] OS. Sun later developed software such as the [[Java programming language]] and acquired software such as [[StarOffice]], [[VirtualBox]] and [[MySQL]]. In February 1991, the company established SunSoft, Inc., a wholly owned division of Sun dedicated to the development of operating systems and application software.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Staff writer | date=February 1991 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/02/14/business/company-news-microsystems-new-divisions.html | title=Microsystems' New Divisions | journal=The New York Times | page=D4 | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150525230058/https://www.nytimes.com/1991/02/14/business/company-news-microsystems-new-divisions.html | archivedate=May 25, 2015}}</ref>

Sun used community-based and open-source licensing of its major technologies, and for its support of its products with other open source technologies. [[GNOME]]-based desktop software called [[Java Desktop System]] (originally code-named "Madhatter") was distributed for the Solaris operating system, and at one point for Linux. Sun supported its [[Java Enterprise System]] (a [[Middleware (distributed applications)|middleware]] stack) on Linux. It released the source code for Solaris under the [[open-source license|open-source]] [[Common Development and Distribution License]], via the OpenSolaris community. Sun's positioning includes a commitment to indemnify users of some software from intellectual property disputes concerning that software. It offers support services on a variety of pricing bases, including per-employee and per-socket.

A 2006 report prepared for the EU by [[UNU-MERIT]] stated that Sun was the largest corporate contributor to open source movements in the world.<ref name="MERIT-floss">{{cite web | title = Study on the: Economic impact of open source software on innovation and the competitiveness of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector in the EU | url = http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/ict/policy/doc/2006-11-20-flossimpact.pdf | access-date = January 25, 2007 | author = Rishab Aiyer Ghosh | date = November 20, 2006 | publisher = [[European Union]] | pages = 51 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070124212401/http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/ict/policy/doc/2006-11-20-flossimpact.pdf | archive-date = January 24, 2007 | df = mdy-all }}</ref> According to this report, Sun's open source contributions exceed the combined total of the next five largest commercial contributors.

===Operating systems===
{{Main|Solaris (operating system)}}

Sun is best known for its Unix systems, which have a reputation for system stability and a consistent design philosophy.{{citation needed|date=October 2015}}

Sun's first workstation shipped with [[UniSoft]] [[Version 7 Unix|V7 Unix]]. Later in 1982 Sun began providing [[SunOS]], a customized 4.2BSD Unix, as the operating system for its workstations.
SunOS included [[suntools]], an early [[GUI]] [[window system]].

In the late 1980s, AT&T tapped Sun to help them develop the next release of their branded UNIX, and in 1988 announced they would purchase up to a 20% stake in Sun.<ref>{{cite news | first = Burgess | last = John | title = AT&T to Buy Stake In Sun Microsystems | url = https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost_historical/access/406816581.html?dids=406816581:406816581&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=JAN+07%2C+1988&author=John+Burgess+Washington+Post+Staff+Writer&pub=The+Washington+Post | newspaper = The Washington Post | date = January 7, 1988 | access-date = January 23, 2007 | quote = American Telephone & Telegraph Co. announced yesterday that it will buy up to a 20 percent stake in Sun Microsystems Inc., a Silicon Valley-based maker of powerful small computers known as workstations. | archive-date = March 27, 2007 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070327204639/https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost_historical/access/406816581.html?dids=406816581:406816581&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=JAN+07%2C+1988&author=John+Burgess+Washington+Post+Staff+Writer&pub=The+Washington+Post | url-status = dead }}</ref> UNIX [[System V Release 4]] (SVR4) was jointly developed by AT&T and Sun.<ref>{{cite book
 |author1     = Simson Garfinkel
 |author2     = Gene Spafford
 |author3     = Alan Schwartz
 |authorlink1 = Simson Garfinkel
 |authorlink2 = Gene Spafford
 |date        = 2003-02-21
 |title       = Practical UNIX and Internet Security
 |publisher   = [[O'Reilly Media]]
 |isbn        = 978-0-596-00323-4
 |page        = 16
 |quote       = In the spring of 1988, AT&T and Sun Microsystems signed a joint development agreement to merge the two versions of Unix.
 |access-date = 2021-11-09
 |url         = https://books.google.com/books?id=50maN7VmpusC&pg=PT46
}}</ref> Sun used SVR4 as the foundation for Solaris 2.x, which became the successor to SunOS 4.1.x (later retroactively named Solaris 1.x). By the mid-1990s, the ensuing [[Unix wars]] had largely subsided, AT&T had sold off their Unix interests, and the relationship between the two companies was significantly reduced.

In the early 1990s, [[Brian P. Dougherty]], founder of [[Berkeley Softworks]] (which would go on to be re-incorporated as the ''GeoWorks Corporation'') accused 
the Java development team at Sun for studying GeoWorks's [[GEOS (16-bit operating system)|PC/GEOS]] operating system and incorporating features of PC/GEOS into their Unix-based operating system. Brian claimed that the object-oriented and flexible UI of PC/GEOS was "to this day the most sophisticated UI technology ever built into an OS".<ref name="Microworks">{{cite web | last=Camen | first=Kroc | date=August 24, 2006 | url=https://www.osnews.com/story/15223/geos-the-graphical-environment-operating-system/ | title=GEOS: The Graphical Environment Operating System | work=[[OSNews]] | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230321041825/https://www.osnews.com/story/15223/geos-the-graphical-environment-operating-system/ | archivedate=March 21, 2023}}</ref>

From 1992 Sun also sold [[Interactive Unix]], an operating system it acquired when it bought Interactive Systems Corporation from Eastman Kodak Company. This was a popular Unix variant for the PC platform and a major competitor to market leader [[SCO UNIX]]. Sun's focus on Interactive Unix diminished in favor of Solaris on both SPARC and x86 systems; it was dropped as a product in 2001.{{Citation needed|date=February 2007}}

Sun dropped the Solaris 2.x version numbering scheme after the Solaris 2.6 release (1997); the following version was branded Solaris 7. This was the first 64-bit release, intended for the new [[UltraSPARC]] CPUs based on the SPARC V9 architecture. Within the next four years, the successors Solaris 8 and Solaris 9 were released in 2000 and 2002 respectively.

Following several years of difficult competition and loss of server market share to competitors' Linux-based systems, Sun began to include Linux as part of its strategy in 2002. Sun supported both [[Red Hat Enterprise Linux]] and [[SUSE Linux Enterprise Server]] on its x64 systems; companies such as [[Canonical Ltd.]], [[Wind River Systems]] and [[MontaVista]] also supported their versions of Linux on Sun's SPARC-based systems.

In 2004, after having cultivated a reputation as one of [[Microsoft]]'s most vocal antagonists, Sun entered into a joint relationship with them, resolving various legal entanglements between the two companies and receiving US$1.95&nbsp;billion in settlement payments from them.<ref>{{cite press release
  |url = http://www.sun.com/smi/Press/sunflash/2004-04/sunflash.20040402.3.xml
  |title = Microsoft and Sun Microsystems Enter Broad Cooperation Agreement; Settle Outstanding Litigation
  |access-date =June 16, 2008
  |date = April 2, 2004
  |publisher=Microsoft Corporation, Sun Microsystems
  |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060322045711/http://www.sun.com/smi/Press/sunflash/2004-04/sunflash.20040402.3.xml
  |archive-date = March 22, 2006
}}</ref> Sun supported Microsoft Windows on its x64 systems, and announced other collaborative agreements with Microsoft, including plans to support each other's virtualization environments.<ref>{{cite news
  | author = Mary Jo Foley
  | title = Microsoft and Sun agree to support each other in virtualized environments
  | url = http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=712
  | work = [[ZDNet]]
  | date = September 12, 2007
  | access-date = February 6, 2008
  | archive-date = September 15, 2007
  | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070915061739/http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=712
  | url-status = dead
  }}</ref>

In 2005, the company released Solaris 10. The new version included a large number of enhancements to the operating system, as well as very novel features, previously unseen in the industry. Solaris 10 update releases continued through the next 8 years, the last release from Sun Microsystems being Solaris 10 10/09. The following updates were released by Oracle under the new license agreement; the final release is Solaris 10 1/13.<ref>{{cite news
  | author= Oracle Corporation
  | title = Oracle Solaris 10 1/13
  | url = http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/solaris10/overview/solaris-latest-version-170418.html
  | work= Oracle Web site
  | date = Feb 8, 2013
  | access-date = March 13, 2013
}}</ref>

Previously, Sun offered a separate variant of Solaris called [[Trusted Solaris]], which included augmented security features such as [[multilevel security]] and a [[least privilege]] access model. Solaris 10 included many of the same capabilities as Trusted Solaris at the time of its initial release; Solaris 10 11/06 included Solaris Trusted Extensions, which give it the remaining capabilities needed to make it the functional successor to Trusted Solaris.

After the release of Solaris 10, the Solaris source code was opened under the [[Common Development and Distribution License|CDDL]] [[free software]] license and developed in open with contributing [[OpenSolaris#History|Opensolaris community]] through [[Solaris (operating system)#Development release|SXCE]] that used [[UNIX System V#SVR4|SVR4]] [[.pkg]] packaging and supported [[OpenSolaris]] releases that used [[Image Packaging System|IPS]].
Following the acquisition of Sun by Oracle, OpenSolaris continued to develop in open under [[illumos]] with [[illumos#Distributions|illumos distributions]].

Oracle Corporation continued to develop Solaris, reverting new development back to the [[proprietary software|proprietary]] licensing; its next release was [[Oracle Solaris 11]] in November 2011.

===Java platform===
{{Main|Java platform}}
The Java platform was developed at Sun by [[James Gosling]] in the early 1990s with the objective of allowing programs to function regardless of the device they were used on, sparking the slogan "[[Write once, run anywhere]]" (WORA). While this objective was not entirely achieved (prompting the riposte "Write once, debug everywhere"), Java is regarded as being largely hardware—and operating system—independent.

Java was initially promoted as a platform for client-side [[Java applet|''applets'']] running inside web browsers. Early examples of Java applications were the [[HotJava]] [[web browser]] and the [[HotJava Views]] suite. However, since then Java has been more successful on the [[Server-side|server side]] of the Internet.

The platform consists of three major parts: the Java programming language, the [[Java virtual machine|Java Virtual Machine]] (JVM), and several [[Java API|Java Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)]]. The design of the Java platform is controlled by the vendor and user community through the [[Java Community Process]] (JCP).

Java is an [[object-oriented programming]] language. Since its introduction in late 1995, it became one of the world's most popular programming languages.<ref>{{cite web
 |url = http://www.tiobe.com/tpci.htm
 |title = TIOBE Programming Community Index
 |access-date = July 5, 2007
 |date = June 2007
 |publisher = TIOBE Software
 |archive-date = November 29, 2007
 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071129202943/http://www.tiobe.com/tpci.htm
 |url-status = dead
 }} Java was ranked 1st as of June 2007, and has ranked 1st, 2nd or 3rd in this index since its inception in 2001.</ref>

Java programs are compiled to [[byte code]], which can be executed by any JVM, regardless of the environment.

The Java [[application programming interface|API]]s provide an extensive set of library routines. These APIs evolved into the [[Java SE|''Standard Edition'' (Java SE)]], which provides basic infrastructure and GUI functionality; the [[Java EE|''Enterprise Edition'' (Java EE)]], aimed at large software companies implementing enterprise-class application servers; and the [[Java ME|''Micro Edition'' (Java ME)]], used to build software for devices with limited resources, such as mobile devices.

On November 13, 2006, Sun announced it would be licensing its Java implementation under the [[GNU General Public License]]; it released its [[Java compiler]] and JVM at that time.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.sun.com/2006-1113/feature/story.jsp | title = Sun Opens Java | access-date =January 25, 2007 | date= November 13, 2006 |  work=Sun Microsystems Web site | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070124154133/http://www.sun.com/2006-1113/feature/story.jsp| archive-date = January 24, 2007}}</ref>

In February 2009, Sun entered a battle with Microsoft and Adobe Systems, which promoted rival platforms to build software applications for the Internet.<ref name=Brandon>{{cite news|author=Brandon Bailey|title=Sun Microsystems, Adobe, Microsoft will battle for dominance in Internet software|url=http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_11741973|work=[[San Jose Mercury News]]|date=February 20, 2009|access-date=March 2, 2009}}</ref> [[JavaFX]] was a development platform for music, video and other applications that builds on the Java programming language.<ref name=Brandon/>

===Office suite===
In 1999, Sun acquired the German software company Star Division and with it the [[office suite]] [[StarOffice]], which Sun later released as [[OpenOffice.org]] under both [[GNU LGPL]] and the SISSL ([[Sun Industry Standards Source License]]). OpenOffice.org supported [[Microsoft Office]] file formats (though not perfectly), was available on many platforms (primarily Linux, Microsoft Windows, [[Mac OS X]], and Solaris) and was used in the [[open source community]].

The principal differences between StarOffice and OpenOffice.org were that StarOffice was supported by Sun, was available as either a single-user retail box kit or as per-user blocks of licensing for the enterprise, and included a wider range of fonts and document templates and a commercial quality spellchecker.<ref>{{cite web|title=Product Comparison|url=http://www.sun.com/software/star/openoffice/|work=Sun Microsystems|access-date=September 18, 2008|archive-date=August 24, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080824170011/http://www.sun.com/software/star/openoffice/|url-status=dead}}</ref>  StarOffice also contained commercially licensed functions and add-ons; in OpenOffice.org these were either replaced by open-source or free variants, or are not present at all. Both packages had native support for the [[OpenDocument]] format.

Derivatives of OpenOffice.org continue to be developed, these are [[LibreOffice]], [[Collabora Online]] and [[Apache OpenOffice]].

===Virtualization and datacenter automation software===
[[File:VirtualBox2.png|thumb|upright=1.35|[[VirtualBox]], purchased by Sun]]
In 2007, Sun announced the Sun xVM virtualization and datacenter automation product suite for commodity hardware. Sun also acquired VirtualBox in 2008. Earlier virtualization technologies from Sun like ''Dynamic System Domains'' and ''Dynamic Reconfiguration'' were specifically designed for high-end SPARC servers, and [[Logical Domains]] only supports the UltraSPARC T1/T2/T2 Plus server platforms. Sun marketed ''[[Sun Ops Center]]'' provisioning software for datacenter automation.

On the client side, Sun offered [[virtual desktop]] solutions. Desktop environments and applications could be hosted in a datacenter, with users accessing these environments from a wide range of client devices, including Microsoft Windows PCs, [[Sun Ray|Sun Ray virtual display clients]], [[Apple Inc.|Apple]] Macintoshes, PDAs or any combination of supported devices. A variety of networks were supported, from LAN to WAN or the public Internet. Virtual desktop products included [[Sun Ray Server Software]], [[Sun Secure Global Desktop]] and [[Sun Virtual Desktop Infrastructure]].

===Database management systems===
Sun acquired MySQL AB, the developer of the [[MySQL]] database in 2008 for US$1&nbsp;billion.<ref>{{cite news|title=Sun Microsystems to acquire Innotek |url=https://www.forbes.com/feeds/afx/2008/02/12/afx4645428.html |work=Forbes |date=February 12, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101202173804/http://www.forbes.com/feeds/afx/2008/02/12/afx4645428.html |archive-date=December 2, 2010 }}</ref> CEO [[Jonathan I. Schwartz|Jonathan Schwartz]] mentioned in his blog that optimizing the performance of MySQL was one of the priorities of the acquisition.<ref>{{cite web
 |url=http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan/entry/winds_of_change_are_blowing
 |title=Helping Dolphins Fly
 |access-date=February 28, 2008
 |date=January 16, 2008
 |publisher=Sun Microsystems
 |url-status=dead
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080117152758/http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan/entry/winds_of_change_are_blowing
 |archive-date=January 17, 2008
}}</ref>  In February 2008, Sun began to publish results of the MySQL performance optimization work.<ref>{{cite web
 |url = http://www.sun.com/blueprints/0208/820-4498.html
 |title = Optimize MySQL Server on Sun x64 Servers and Storage
 |access-date = February 28, 2008
 |date = February 2006
 |publisher = Sun Microsystems
 |archive-date = March 10, 2008
 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080310010437/http://www.sun.com/blueprints/0208/820-4498.html
 |url-status = dead
 }}</ref>  Sun contributed to the [[PostgreSQL]] project. On the Java platform, Sun contributed to and supported [[Java DB]].

===Other software===
Sun offered other software products for software development and infrastructure services. Many were developed in house; others came from acquisitions, including Tarantella, Waveset Technologies,<ref name="waveset"/> SeeBeyond, and Vaau. Sun acquired many of the [[Netscape]] non-browser software products as part a deal involving Netscape's merger with [[AOL]].<ref>{{cite press release |title=Sun-Netscape alliance targets e-commerce with new brand identity |publisher=Sun Microsystems |date=January 25, 2000 |url=http://www.sun.com/smi/Press/sunflash/2000-01/sunflash.20000125.5.xml |access-date=January 1, 2007 |archive-date=January 7, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070107032224/http://www.sun.com/smi/Press/sunflash/2000-01/sunflash.20000125.5.xml |url-status=dead }}</ref> These software products were initially offered under the "iPlanet" brand; once the Sun-Netscape alliance ended, they were re-branded as "[[Sun ONE]]" (Sun Open Network Environment), and then the "[[Sun Java System]]".

Sun's middleware product was branded as the ''Java Enterprise System'' (JES), and marketed for web and application serving, communication, calendaring, directory, identity management and [[service-oriented architecture]]. Sun's [[Open ESB]] and other software suites were available free of charge on systems running Solaris, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, [[HP-UX]], and Windows, with support available optionally.

Sun developed data center management software products, which included the ''[[Solaris Cluster]]'' high availability software, and a grid management package called ''[[Sun Grid Engine]]'' and firewall software such as SunScreen.
For [[Network Equipment Provider]]s and telecommunications customers, Sun developed the Sun Netra High-Availability Suite.

Sun produced compilers and development tools under the ''[[Sun Studio (software)|Sun Studio]]'' brand, for building and developing Solaris and Linux applications.
Sun entered the [[software as a service]] (SaaS) market with [[zembly]], a social cloud-based [[computing platform]] and Project Kenai, an open-source project hosting service.