Oracle sheds new light on future of Sun technologies

Oracle has provided new details about its plans for certain key Sun Microsystems technologies, including the GlassFish application server and the NetBeans application development toolkit.

The software giant announced plans to buy Sun earlier this year, but the deal is on hold while European authorities conduct an antitrust review. Meanwhile, users have questioned the fate of Sun software and systems under Oracle, with particular concern centering on the MySQL open-source database.

Oracle plans to "continue evolving" GlassFish, which is a competitor to its WebLogic application server, as well as provide active support to the GlassFish community, according to an updated FAQ on the acquisition.

In addition, Oracle "plans to invest in aligning common infrastructure components and innovations from Oracle WebLogic Server and GlassFish Enterprise Server" to benefit customers in both camps, according to the FAQ.

It was not clear Thursday when the document was updated. An Oracle spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The FAQ expresses a much more lukewarm commitment to NetBeans, saying only that it is expected to provide "an additional open source option and complement" to Oracle's tools, which include JDeveloper and Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse. JDeveloper is part of Oracle's Fusion Middleware portfolio, which underpins the company's next-generation Fusion Applications. An initial Fusion Applications suite is expected next year after a protracted delay.

Sun's OpenOffice productivity suite will also see continued development and support as an open-source project under Oracle, according to the FAQ. The suite will "create a compelling desktop integration bridge for our enterprise customers and offers consumers another choice on the desktop," Oracle said. Like Sun, Oracle plans to offer "a typical commercial license option" for customers that want "extra assurances, support, and enterprise tools."

Oracle is also planning to preserve Sun's lineup of desktop virtualization software, which includes VDI, Sun Ray, Secure Global Desktop and VirtualBox, according to the FAQ.

Sun's identity management and SOA (service oriented architecture) software will be integrated into Fusion Middleware, the FAQ adds.

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