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At a press conference at this week's LinuxWorld Expo in San Francisco, Sun Microsystems reiterated yet again its commitment to release the source code to its Java language under an OSI-approved open source license.

Which license? Undecided.

What governance model will be used? They're working on it.

How will the community be organized, and who will participate? Wait and see.

But Sun did for the first time include Java ME (Mobile Edition) in the list of products that would be part of the open source effort, and representatives claim that all of the code to Java SE should be released "early next calendar year." Details forthcoming -- as has been the case for some time now.

Buried in all the standard fanfare around open source, however, was another, perhaps more interesting announcement. In a move that took place somewhat under the radar, Sun has quietly reorganized its software divisions. Under the new structure, Sun's storage software group is now part of the Solaris group.

This move is significant, in that it not only helps to consolidate Sun's various developer divisions, but it also hints at the direction Sun plans to take for its storage products in the near future.

"Solaris, as powerful as it is, is increasingly used as a platform for network storage devices," said Rich Green, Sun's newly-appointed executive vice president of software systems. "We think there's an enormous opportunity here ... but stay tuned."

Indeed.

courtesy: INFOWORLD TECH WATCH