Press Release

Forte For Java IDE Wins 2002 Crossroads A-List Award

SANTA CLARA, CA -- January 8, 2002 -- Sun Microsystems, Inc. today announced that its Forte[tm] for Java[tm] product has been awarded a 2002 Crossroads A-List Award by Open Systems Advisors, Inc. (OSA) in the Java Integrated Development Environment (IDE) category. The Forte for Java IDE was chosen for an A-List Award based on interviews with customers using the product.

The recognition demonstrates that Forte for Java, which is a core component of the < a href="http://www.sun.com/sunone/">Sun[tm] Open Net Environment (Sun ONE) and is based on open source code, has matured significantly and customers are using the IDE to develop innovative new enterprise applications and services on demand. "Our customer interviews showed clearly that the Forte for Java IDE is addressing the needs of enterprise developers who are starting to build Web services," said Nina Lytton, president, Crossroads-OSA. "The customers we spoke with found they can be extremely productive using the Forte for Java IDE. They praised the product's smooth learning curve, intuitive interface and graceful integration of third-party products."

The Crossroads A-List Awards outline the business benefits, summarize the technology differentiators, validate solutions with customer experiences and provide a basis for informed dialogue between business and technology partners. During these interviews, customers articulated their positive experiences with the Forte for Java IDE, particularly emphasizing the elegant way in which the product works with a variety of third-party products, and the AutoUpdate feature, which gives developers timely access to new features. Customers also cited the productivity-enhancing wizards that enable developers to generate XML services from new or existing Java technology components and enable HTML developers to build Web services with no knowledge of the Java language or XML.

Customers interviewed for the award also praised the Forte for Java IDE's gradual learning curve. They pointed to the product's "ergonomic" interface, which logically arranges features according to need for use, and intuitive new wizards to guide users step-by-step through commonly occurring processes. Finally, customers emphasized the IDE's flexibility, noting its support for a range of operating systems (Linux, Windows and the Solaris[tm] Operating Environment), the leading source code configuration management systems, projects of varied complexity, and developer skill levels ranging from beginner to advanced.

"We are honored to accept the 2002 Crossroads A-List Award for Java IDE," said Peter Young, vice president, Forte Tools, Sun Microsystems. "We believe this award is further validation of our conviction that a dynamic open source community propels a product toward excellence faster than possible with a closed, proprietary approach. Sun's longstanding commitment to base the Forte for Java IDE on the NetBeans[tm] open source platform is paying off for customers." For additional information, contact Open Systems Advisors, Inc., 268 Newbury Street, Boston, MA 02116, (617) 859-0859; www.crossroads-osa.com.

About Sun ONE
Sun ONE, the integration of Sun's award-winning portfolio of software products, is Sun's vision, architecture, platform and expertise that enables the development and delivery of services on demand. Through its open, integratable architecture, Sun ONE extends current enterprise systems to help reduce costs and complexity while improving organizations' return on assets. Sun ONE represents a significant initiative in Sun's evolution to providing an open end-to-end architecture building on the company's offerings across systems and development environments. Further information is available at www.sun.com/sunone.

About Sun Developer Connection
Building on Sun's vision to enable services on demand with the latest open technologies, the Sun Developer Connection[sm] (SDC) offers individual developers and software development partners a single, worldwide entry point to build a technical and business relationship with Sun. As one of the largest developer communities in the world, the SDC is the connection to Sun for comprehensive resources to build and market solutions leveraging Sun's open technologies, products, business development and community forums. All programs, registration and eligibility information can be found at < a href="http://www.sun.com/sunone/">http://www.sun.com/sdc.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision -- "The Network Is The Computer[tm]" -- has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW), to its position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that power the Internet and allow companies worldwide to take their businesses to the nth. With $18.3 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than 170 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://sun.com.

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