Analysts said the move, which makes its middleware, management and Java development tools free to use, is yet another indication that such infrastructure software is becoming a commodity.

The new effort follows Sun's decision last year to offer its Solaris operating system as an open-source technology.

Sun officials acknowledged that the latest move won't cut software prices for most corporate users, who will still pay current prices for service and support. For instance, users of the company's Java Enterprise System middleware stack will pay $140 per employee annually for the entire product suite - the same as today's enterprise license price tag.

Nonetheless, some users do expect to benefit from the open-source principles.

Daniel Grim, executive director of network and systems at the University of Delaware in Newark, said that just after Sun's announcement, his developers discovered that they didn't need a software key to enable use of the new release of Sun's Studio 11 tool.