Sun goes all out to help young SW developers

SAN FRANCISCO: Speaking to a gathering of educators from around the world, Sun Microsystems, Inc. Chairman and CEO Scott McNealy outlined Sun's expanded student developer community program, designed to assist young software developers in learning how to initiate open, secure projects based on Sun's applications. With the recent release of Solaris 10 Operating System, it is anticipated that there will be significant emphasis on the Solaris OS.

"Solaris is enjoying a tremendous surge in popularity with more than 500,000 downloads since the release of Solaris 10," McNealy said. "We want young developers around the world to have access to the tools, the experience and the necessary knowledge to write to this environment and to take advantage of its superior features."

Sun will offer the student developer communities direct access to the brightest minds at Sun, free software development tools, and free web-based training and donations to student labs at select universities. Through its Academic Excellence Grants, Sun has earmarked $1 million worth of lab donations for the program and has already provided $400,000 in funding this year. (For terms and conditions, visit http://www.sun.com/edu)

Sun's program will make it easy and affordable for young developers to write to the widely adopted Solaris platform by making software development tools and training programs available, creating opportunities for collaboration through the existing Sun Developer Network, and providing special offers for third party discounts.

McNealy, made the announcement during a keynote address on the closing day of Sun's 2005 Worldwide Education & Research Conference. "Nowhere is the digital divide wider or deeper than in the area of education," McNealy said. "We need to close that divide, not widen it. The educational experience for the 'haves' is qualitatively different from those on the other side. We must encourage and train the next generation of developers to think big and act boldly no matter what side of the divide they're on."

Helping to Bridge the Digital Divide

McNealy used the occasion to announce other projects Sun is involved in to promote the closing of the digital divide, including:

• A pledge to academic and research institutions to donate ten blocks of 100,000 hours of CPU processing power, accompanied by 100 terabytes of data storage capacity per month, within the next year.


• Insight into discussions with Nicholas Negroponte, the founder and chairman of the MIT Media Lab, exploring ways in which Sun can contribute software to his $100 laptop idea for education ministries in developing nations.

McNealy urged the audience to continue pushing technology into every aspect of the education process, noting that students and educators of every age, background and location can benefit.

"We don't want to automate the library or the classroom, we want to automate the entire education system," McNealy concluded. "We don't just want 'no child left behind,' we want 'no child held back' as well."