---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Software Referral Program, Software Discounts, Other New Services Offered To Sun's Catalyst Vendors SunFLASH Vol 18 #3 June 1990 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Catalyst Program No. 1 in its Class MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. --May 15, 1990-- Many special new programs and services were added today to Sun Microsystems' Catalyst Program for third-party vendors. Already a dynamic support program, Catalyst includes a range of vendor services normally offered only by companies many times larger than Sun. Sun designed Catalyst to be more innovative, broad and helpful than other vendor support programs. "Our goal is to give our Catalyst members the kind of technical, marketing and sales support that makes it easy for them to sell their products," said Mary Anderson, director of Catalyst programs at Sun. "Unlike other major hardware vendors, we've chosen not to compete with our application vendors. Instead, we look to them for the applications that make for a total hardware/software solution, so our Catalyst program is a critical part of Sun's success." Catalyst lists more than 3,000 Sun software and hardware products for its SPARC(TM), Motorola and Intel-based systems, offered by more than 1,600 third-party vendors. Among the new Catalyst services supporting these vendors are: Discounts on Popular Productivity Applications A first in the workstation industry is Sun's productivity software welcome kit, included with every new SPARCstation(TM) SLC being shipped. The kit introduces Sun customers to new productivity applications not previously available on Sun hardware and also offers special promotional pricing. It contains discount coupons from third-party vendors on a range of software and services for Sun's desktop SPARC(TM) workstations. For example, users are offered a $50 rebate on the already low price of $695 for Lotus 1-2-3 for Sun. Discount coupons from both Frame and Interleaf are available, along with special pricing on other desktop productivity applications. Price reductions range from 15 to 50 percent. Among the other vendors participating are T/Maker, Access Technology, VersaSoft and Sun. Sun plans eventually to include a welcome kit with all desktop systems shipped worldwide. At that time, welcome kits sent to overseas customers will contain coupons for international versions of third-party software. New Mac-to-Sun Porting Guide from Addison-Wesley Sun's porting guides have become an indispensable Catalyst tool. Thus Addison-Wesley will publish a Macintosh-to-UNIX porting guide created by Sun called "Writing Applications for Sun Systems: A Guide for the Macintosh Programmer." It will help Macintosh developers move their applications to the Sun platform. The book will be available in stores by the fall of 1990. Sun will offer summary copies to developers this month. In addition, Sun is releasing the third edition of its UNIX porting guide, used to aid UNIX developers porting applications to SPARC. Free Software Referral Program Supports ISVs Sun's new Desktop Software Connection 800 service is a toll-free telephone number that customers call for distribution information on popular SPARC(TM)/UNIX(R) productivity software such as spreadsheets, word processing and database applications. Customers will be referred to the closest available source of the requested software application. Initially, 10 Sun third-party vendors will participate in the program. It will expand to include Sun's other ISVs over time. The 800 telephone number and service will be made available to Sun customers beginning in early July 1990. On-Line Support Service Goes Worldwide NeWSware SM , the industry's only PostScript-based WYSIWYG on-line support and information service, has expanded worldwide. Through this database search and electronic messaging system, Catalyst vendors can access a wide range of technical, marketing and sales information 24 hours a day. Data on Sun's NeWSware can be downloaded to a PostScript laser printer. NeWSware features the intuitive OPEN LOOK graphical interface, which makes the service easy to use and accessible. NeWSware users can display WYSIWYG text and graphics across a wide area network, a feature of Sun's X11/NeWS(TM) (Network-extensible Window System). Sun Opens Solution Centers Just launched was a nationwide network of Sun solution centers that offer third-party developers the opportunity to have their products viewed on the Sun platform. End users can visit the centers to see all Sun solutions available. The new centers will host end user seminars, reseller sales training and other major Sun-sponsored programs conducted with Sun ISV partners. In addition, through the NeWSware browser capability, customers have on-line access to solutions for a particular need. Sun Application Development Centers Now Worldwide An important part of the Catalyst program is extensive support of software development by companies worldwide. A new center has been opened recently in Asia to assist developers with language localization, product development and porting efforts. A second center in Europe will open next quarter. Dedicated engineering support and the use of workstations are available to developers at these centers. Sun already operates centers in Boston, Chicago and Mountain View. SBus Development Center Sun's support of the third-party vendor community is also demonstrated in its just-unveiled SBus Development Center and seminar series. SBus is a high-performance I/O interconnect featured on the SPARCstation 1+. Currently, there are more than 60 SBus products from at least 35 card and system vendors. Products include 24-bit true-color boards, additional Ethernet cards, serial port extenders, additional networking products and graphics or imaging boards. Operating System, Demos, on CD-ROM Besides including a CD-ROM drive in its SPARCware Development Kit, Sun is encouraging its vendors to utilize the benefits of CD-ROM technology in other ways. Sun is offering on CD-ROM media the Catalyst catalog of 3,000 software and hardware products, demo disks with samples of major third-party applications and the latest version of Sun's operating system, SunOS(TM) 4.1. Sun plans to expand its use of CD-ROM technology for third-party software demonstrations in the future. Special Discounts on SPARCware Development Kits To aid software developers in their efforts to create products for the SPARC/UNIX/OPEN LOOK/ONC platform, Sun is offering to qualified Catalyst vendors a choice of two new SPARCware Development Kits priced at up to half off the retail value of the bundled products. The two kits are: SPARCstation 1+ with GX graphics board and 12 MB memory, 16-inch monitor, 200 MB disk, SunOS 4.1, CD-ROM subsystem, OpenWindows(TM) Application Environment and GUIDE. $10,745. SPARCstation SLC with monochrome monitor, 104 MB disk, CD-ROM subsystem, SunOS 4.1, OpenWindows and GUIDE. $5,995. Sun Microsystems, Inc., headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., is a leading worldwide supplier of network-based distributed computing systems, including professional workstations, servers and UNIX operating system and productivity software. ### SPARC, SPARCware, SPARCstation, NeWSware, SunOS are trademarks and X11/NeWS is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems. OPEN LOOK is a trademark and UNIX is a registered trademark of AT&T. All other products or services mentioned in this document are identified by the trademarks or service marks of their respective companies or organizations. Press Contact: Nancy Groves (415) 336-6411 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Sunflash is an electronic mail news service from Sun Microsystems, Ft. Lauderdale, FL. It is targeted at Sun Users and Customers. As a field sales and support office, we try to keep SunFlash useful and interesting to you. If you have any comments or suggestions for enhancing SunFlash, please send them to us. SunFlash is ditributed via a hierarchy of aliases. Please try to address change requests to the owner of the alias that you belong to. Please address comments to the SunFlash editor John McLaughlin (sun!sunvice!flash or flash@sunvice.East.Sun.COM). (305) 776-7770.