Sun Microsystems adds Postgres database and Xen virtualization server to Solaris 10

Sun Microsystems adds Postgres database and Xen virtualization server to Solaris 10

Sun Microsystems has expanded the list of open-source code that it supports in its Solaris 10 operating system. The latest additions to this list are the open source database system Postgres and the Xen Virtualization server. Market analysts are surprised at this move considering Oracle has remained pretty close to Sun in the past and they should have instead chosen supporting the free versions of Oracle database systems.

Sun is instead encouraging the use of open-source databases by insuring that Postgres will work with Solaris 10. On this issue, John Loiacono, executive VP for software mentioned: “We’d love to see Oracle move in this direction itself.” he also said that they would continue with their plans to distribute Postgres until Oracle makes an open-source version of the Oracle database.

The company is due to distribute these new additions to their Solaris 10 Operating System immediately and will integrate it into the operating system in the first half of 2006. The aim is to position Solaris in competition to the popular choice Linux and some commercial versions of UNIX. They have also decided to incorporate its advanced, 128-bit, ZFS or Zetabyte File System into Solaris 10.

The company also claimed that Linux, Windows, and other competing operating systems could not offer the data integrity, which their Solaris 10 provides. Now, how the market reacts to these statements is another issue.