Noting that users may want Solaris but not necessarily Sun hardware, the software was unleashed from the hardware, according to Schwartz. Now, Solaris will run on any system built, he said.

"Now, we"re the fastest-growing x64 vendor in the marketplace," he said.

Not everyone wants source code, however, according to Schwartz. Recalling a meeting with officials at companies in the Midwest a year ago, Schwartz said he talked of the open sourcing of Solaris.

"One guy said, "I don"t want anymore source code. I"ve got plenty of that,"" Schwartz said.

Touting Sun"s own Sparc hardware, Schwartz noted the planned 32-way Niagara  chip. Sun has a performance advantage over IBM"s Power 5 chip, he said.

Dell, meanwhile, is "having a harder and harder time being relevant in the enterprise," because of the power and space consumption required by its systems, Schwartz said, adding that electricity now is incredibly expensive.