Sun Takes a Shine to Linux in New Web Stack

Datamation content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.

Much of the open source community relies on the popular LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) application stack, a setup that traditionally has been offered through Linux vendors.

Sun Microsystems is now joining the party with its own take on the LAMP stack — one that could pose a challenge to the LAMP offerings from Linux vendors, since it’s aimed at users of Linux as well as Sun Solaris. Eventually, it will support Windows and Mac OS X, too.

Officially called the Web Stack by Sun, the new enterprise “AMP” (Apache, MySQL and PHP) stack also aims to create a new revenue stream from Linux for Sun.

“We’ve now made the commitment to provide full enterprise support for the AMP stack on Solaris and Linux this year and probably early next year, on Windows and Mac OS X,” Ken Drachnik, community development and marketing manager for Sun’s open source group, told InternetNews.com.

“The key here is we’re now expanding our open source model and providing open source not just on distributions from Sun, but we’re integrating components from other open source communities, providing version control and a regular release cycle for other OSes,” he said.

Not all flavors of Linux will be supported initially, however. Drachnik said Sun would first provide the Web Stack on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, with other distributions, like Ubuntu Linux, to follow.

“We have a good relationship with Ubuntu and we’ll get there over time,” Drachnik said. Sun has provided hardware support for Ubuntu since at least 2006.

The offering builds on Sun’s previous enterprise AMP stack for Solaris users, which Drachnik said had been geared specifically for Solaris developers who wanted an integrated stack without the need to cobble one together for themselves.
With the new release, Sun is banking that developers will be enticed by the fact that the company’s new Web Stack offers standardized components across Linux as well as Solaris — and ultimately Windows and OS X. Typically, many develop on one operating system and then deploy on another, which can make development difficult.

As a result, Drachnik views Sun’s stack as offering a major differentiator against the Linux-only stacks offered directly by LAMP’s supporters.

This article was first published on InternetNews.com. To read the full article, click here.