---- included message ---- You are invited to read Gartner's document "Open Source at Sun Microsystems, 2008" where Gartner discusses an increasing role for open source within business strategies in coming years.
Link:http://mediaproducts.gartner.com/reprints/sunmicrosystems/article1/article1.html ---- Quotes: Situation Now No other major IT platform vendor has committed so much of its core assets to the open-source software model as Sun Microsystems. ... These are bold moves for Sun ? ones that may energize its competitive momentum and place it firmly in a position of thought leadership at the forefront of an evolving IT industry. They are also risky moves, given that its strategy is a trailblazing effort with little precedent and few historical success stories to reference. The market response to Sun's early steps in this direction has been guarded, but opportunities for stronger momentum still exist. ... Future and Transition Today, Sun has committed its core IP to the open-source technology model more than any other major platform vendor. This strategy comes at its own risk; on-ramping free community products to "enterprise" subscription services is a challenge for any vendor with a commercial open-source strategy. However, Sun has a strong history of open and collaborative efforts ? even preceding the formalized concept of open source in some areas. Of all the major platform vendors (IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, HP and so on), Sun is best-positioned to drive the integrated open-source "stack" into the mainstream. Its success and challenges will provide the reference points by which other vendors will measure their own commitments in coming years. -John
