As chief open-source officer at Sun Microsystems, Simon Phipps has been a busy man of late, with Sun moving to open-source big pieces of its software portfolio-from its Solaris operating system to its enterprise Java software stack. Phipps sat down with eWEEK Senior Editor Darryl K. Taft in Boston in February to talk tools, software and business strategy.

How would you describe your job? What do you do?

I'm Sun's chief open-source officer. I am the catalyst for helping Sun open-source its software portfolio, from soup to nuts.

So I link together all the groups, give them or direct them to the advice they need to take their products open source, and devise the business models that will keep the developers paid. I promote best practice and unified thinking. And I advise Sun's executives on open-source governance, licensing, community and business issues.

What is Sun's tools strategy?

Full Interview.