Sun To Open Source Java System Web Server and Web Proxy Technologies

• By John K. Waters
• 08/05/08

Sun Microsystems recently said it will soon open source the core components of Sun Java System Web Proxy and Sun Java System Web Server 7.0 under the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) license. The Web and Proxy source code will be released later this year.

"By open sourcing the core technology in our Web and Proxy server, Sun's goal is to give developers more flexibility, choice and help them achieve faster time to market," said Karen Tegan Padir, vice president of engineering in Sun's Software Infrastructure group, in a released statement. "Through Sun's enterprise-grade Web software Stack and Sun's Web and Proxy servers, enterprises and developers now have the option to standardize their development and production environments on open source technology."

Jim Jagielski, co-founder, member and director of the Apache Software Foundation, said he thinks Sun's release of the Web and Proxy server code is "proof of their involvement and commitment to open source," according to a prepared statement. "I am quite excited by the opportunities and possibilities that this provides, both as an Open Source community member, but also as a director, member and developer within the Apache Software Foundation," he commented.

BSD-style licenses are "unrestricted," meaning they allow anyone to do anything with the code, including putting it into a proprietary product, without contributing anything back to the community. The open source Apache Web server, which is one of the most commonly used Web server on the planet, falls under this type of license. A "reciprocal" license, such as the Mozilla Public License (MPL) or the GNU General Public Licenses (GPL), requires that all modifications be given to the community.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based systems company made the announcements at the annual O'Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON) in Portland, Ore. last week.

At the same time, Sun unveiled the Sun Web Stack, a LAMP-like stack for Solaris and Linux operating systems. The LAMP stack (Linux/ Apache/ MySQL/ Perl-PHP-Python) is a popular combination of open source software used to run dynamic Web sites and Web servers.

Previously called the Cool Stack, the Sun Web Stack combines the Solaris operating system with the AMP portion of the LAMP stack. A partial list of the primary components in the Web Stack includes: the Apache HTTP Web server, version 2.2.8; Apache Modules Memcached 1.2.5 (distributed memory object system); lighttpd Web server v 1.4.18; Tomcat Servlet engine 6.0.16; PHP 5.2.5; MySQL 5.1 Database; Ruby 1.8.6; Rails 1.2.3; RubyGems 0.9.0; Perl 5.8.8 and extensions; and the Squid proxy server 2.16.x.

Sun said that it plans to provide product version control covering a number of operating systems to allow for easier cross-platform transitioning of resulting applications.

The Sun Web Stack is available now for download here.