550 is officially EOL http://www.sun.com/hardware/serverappliances/eol.html
Yes, but it's still 'shipping' until January (I think). And some resellers might maintain inventory for a while beyond that. Sun won't do anything to a 'current' product... it'll have to be 'dead' for a while I think.
IMO, Sun should spend the money one time to scrub the code for all products and release it under BSD license, and allow good people like Gerald and Michael Stauber to take up a commercial maintenance business on the products. Would generate goodwill towards Sun I think, and give existing product owners a better chance for keeping the boxes up to date or getting enhancements. Sun could even subcontract the maintenance patches from someone and relieve themselves from having to provide software support themselves...