Sun Microsystems has announced completion of  the acquisition of Tarantella, Inc. Sun's investment in Tarantella, the renamed former remnants of the original Santa Cruz Operation (SCO),  underscores the company's commitment to an Open Source desktop delivered through the network, the company says.

With the close of this acquisition, Sun now owns all assets of a leading provider of software that enables organizations to access and manage information, data and applications across virtually all platforms, networks and devices, according to Sun. The company further states that "putting Sun's R&D and marketing might behind Tarantella's technology allows the industry to deliver secure access to data and applications anywhere on virtually any Java enabled device as a service."

Sun believes this capability will be a catalyst for accelerating the adoption of a utility computing model for the desktop and is extending an invitation to service providers, OEMs, device manufacturers and others to build on these new business opportunities.

"This investment focus reflects the strong demand we see for desktop infrastructure software that leverages the network to reduce the cost of management and security," said Jonathan Schwartz, president and chief operating officer, Sun Microsystems. "We will continue to invest aggressively in the desktop space including our Java Desktop System - available on Linux or Solaris, the OpenSolaris community, Firefox, Gnome and OpenOffice."