On Sun, 2003-08-24 at 19:27, Net Llama! wrote: > Sun is between a rock and a hard place right now, as they despise M$, yet > fear Linux. They're not sure whether they want to fight a two fronted war > at the moment, so they're riding the fence.
I work a lot with Sun (but these opinions are mine). They have sat on the fence for years... even when they released Star Office for Linux, they still refused to commit in broader terms to supporting the Linux environment. Behind the scenes Sun developers were contributing to Linux with the tacit approval of Sun managers. Sun views their niche to be a very large share of the mid-high end Enterprise market. This is not an area where Linux has been a strong threat. Sun would just as soon ignore Linux, or at best only dabble in it for amusement. However, there has been enough requests from clients that they can no longer ignore Linux and they are starting to come around. Sun is now offering Linux systems. Sun is also allying with Linux and incorporating Linux elements in its forthcoming Sun business/corporate desktop - the one that Sun hopes will squeeze market share from Microsoft W2k and XP. From sun.com: " Project Mad Hatter's interface is designed to be familiar to business desktop application users, which helps reduce training costs. The desktop also includes some features unique to Linux such as the Workspace Switcher in the lower right-hand corner that enables users to set up four different work spaces." (Does this look familiar? http://www.sun.com/2003-0805/feature/images/defaultevolution_scrnshot_081803.jpg) OTOH, Sun absolutely despises Microsoft... and that extends right up to their CEO, Scott McNealy. I suspect Sun sees Linux as an emerging low-cost complementary alternative that they need to get a piece of. They see Microsoft, however, as a direct predatory threat to Sun's existence. -- burns _______________________________________________ Linux-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe/Suspend/Etc -> http://www.linux-sxs.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
