PALO ALTO, CA -- Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW) today announced it is making available Solaris(TM) 9 Developer Early Access software, the first beta of its upcoming Solaris 9 Operating Environment (OE) software, for download on its Web site. This announcement represents an important milestone in the evolution of Solaris OE software, the leading operating environment for network servers. Beginning today, users can download Solaris 9 OE through Sun's Early Access (EA) program. Through the early access program, developers can evaluate Solaris 9 OE software and test their applications on the new operating environment. This will allow developers to take advantage of the new capabilities in Solaris 9 OE software early and will let them evaluate and test their existing Solaris OE applications without making changes. In addition, EA program participant feedback will help further develop the technology for a general availability Solaris 9 OE software release planned for 2002. "Today's IT managers and systems developers -- from startups to Fortune 1000 enterprises -- are seeking increased levels of integration and manageability to reduce costs and increase service levels," said Andy Ingram, vice president of marketing, Solaris software. "Solaris 9 Developer Early Access will allow users to provide critical input as we move towards the final shipping version. The upcoming version of Solaris OE software promises to build on the Solaris OE hallmarks of availability, scalability and security for the Internet age." "So far, we have found the stability of Solaris 9 OE Developer Early Access to be of production quality," said Ian G. Batten, IT director at Fujitsu Telecom. "Even though we have not started any formal performance testing, we have encountered no compatibility, installation or stability issues. The Solaris 9 beta is already the primary desktop-computing environment for some of our staff. Since we are able to easily evaluate and test existing applications, we anticipate most of the new applications we develop will likely run without changes." Solaris OE is part of the Sun ONE offering for services on demand -- an open, intergratable product stack designed to enable the infrastructure required for robust Web services. The Solaris 9 software, which is available for SPARC(TM) and Intel systems, capitalizes on the Solaris OE track record of combining industrial-strength data center features with advanced Internet technologies, and of protecting software investments by delivering compatibility for customers' existing applications. Availability Solaris 9 OE, Developer Early Access software, the beta release of Solaris 9 Operating Environment, is available now through Sun's EA program at www.sun.com/solaris/programs/solaris9ea . Solaris 9 OE software is planned to be released during calendar year 2002.