Fwd: Re: [SunHELP] Solaris 9 released

[Andy Bastien]

On Sat, 2002-05-25 at 11:16, Lionel Peterson wrote:
> Note: forwarded message attached.
> 
> From: Lionel Peterson <lionel4287 at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: [SunHELP] Solaris 9 released
> 
> Well, the big picture had StarOffice as a comercial
> product by a third-party, which Sun bought and turned
> around and offered free licenses/downloads. Now Sun
> has made an additional investment in improving the
> product they bought (assumed),a nd the only way to get
> it is as a purchased piece of software. That older
> versions used to be free is really just an interesting
> piece of information (in my opinion).

StarOffice is based on OpenOffice, which is an open-source and free
(beer) product.  StarOffice adds a few gizmos and tech support, so
that's what you're paying for.

> In looking at the included items with Solaris 9 "Full
> Media Kit" ($95) - I noticed that Forte Developer 6 is
> included - isn't that Sun's Compilers for C, C++ and
> Fortran? That is a non-trivial change in the included
> software in a "free" OS from Sun (Solaris hasn't
> included a C compiler since SunOS 4.1.4 +/-)...

Does it include a license?  Some copies of Solaris 8 come with a Bonus
Software pack that includes the compiler software, but doesn't include a
full license.  It's a try-before-you-buy sort of thing, I believe.