More of my sites

WinInfo Daily News
SuperSite for Windows
Windows IT Pro Magazine
Connected Home
Thurrott Dot Com
Windows Weekly at TWIT

About this site

For six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul

Tuesday, June 01, 2004

Sun to Unveil Plan Aimed at Linux

Wall Street Journal (subscription required): "Sun Microsystems ... today will outline plans to woo customers to its Solaris operating system and subscription-based software and services. Sun is highlighting the lower price for Solaris compared with Red Hat Inc., whose popular version of Linux is resold by International Business Machines Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. and others. Jonathan Schwartz, a former software chief at Sun who was named the company's president and chief operating officer earlier this year, argues that Sun has a distinct advantage over companies that don't make their own operating systems for low-end servers. While pricing Solaris aggressively -- either as a separate product, or bundled with servers -- Sun can still derive additional revenue from the software to counteract the effect of falling hardware prices, he said."

Of course, one might wonder why anyone would purchase Sun's Linux-based (and mis-named) Java Desktop System, Release 2 if the company is pushing its proprietary UNIX alternative so strongly. I guess it comes down to two factors: 1, you have to believe Sun's strategy is wrong, and that Linux will ultimately doom Solaris to the dustbin of history as a result. And, 2, that in the end, it doesn't matter: Sun JDS is a surprisingly excellent distribution, given its source, and if Solaris does bite it, Sun has a nice fallback. Besides, JDS will be a great way to test Sun's also-surprising UI work in Project Looking Glass, which should start appearing in public form this summer.

[ Posted at 9:14 AM | Permalink ]