Page II: After being promoted to the No. 2 job at Sun Microsystems, Jonathan Schwartz has begun spreading his unusual pricing plans from the software group to the rest of the company.
Sun is also launching per-citizen pricing for its Java Enterprise System server software. While the company had committed to the idea earlier, it now has begun selling it according to population and how the United Nations ranks countries as more, less or least developed. Countries with larger populations and lower development pay less per citizen.
"Governments -- when delivering driver's licences, health care or fishing permits -- tend to serve massive marketplaces," Schwartz said.
Under Sun's pricing, Mexico, a less-developed country with a population of 100 million, would get to use as much Java Enterprise System software as it wants for a charge of 81 cents per citizen per year. Nations classified as "least developed" pay between 33 cents and 75 cents per citizen, while "less developed" nations pay between 33 cents and $1.95 per citizen, spokesman Russ Castronovo said.
The company will also unveil:
Several "reference architectures," collections of servers and software geared for specific tasks, including a portal with e-mail and calendar services; a foundation for Oracle 10g database to run business accounting software; an intrusion detection system to guard against network break-ins; and a VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) phone system using Lucent technology.
A new four-processor UltraSparc server, the Netra 440 that's been "ruggedised" to withstand the difficult conditions such as those faced by military customers.
Server software for companies to manage data from RFID (radio frequency identification) tags.
The Dynamic File System, which vastly increases the amount of storage space Solaris can use, will ship with version 10 of Solaris. That operating system upgrade is due by the end of the year.
Improvements to the Java Enterprise System, plus other server software for managing the identity and permitted activities of computers and computer users.
The N1 Grid Console, which lets administrators control and monitor semi-independent Solaris subdivisions, called N1 Grid Containers, on a single server.
The Java Education and Learning Community, a committee that will study computer infrastructure for schools and share its findings on Sun's Java.net Web site.
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