Sun is adding another Linux piece to its overall product line, but don't confuse that with a strong endorsement for the open-source operating system.
SAN FRANCISCO—Sun Microsystems Inc. is adding another Linux piece to its overall product line, but dont confuse that with a strong endorsement for the open-source operating system.
"We dont offer Linux computers; we offer solutions," said Scott McNealy, Suns chairman, president and CEO, in an interview following the announcement of Suns desktop initiative,
Project Mad Hatter, at the Sun Network conference here last week.
"The goal is to ask the customer what problem they want solved," McNealy said. "Customers shouldnt be writing to Solaris or Windows or Linux; they should be writing to the Sun ONE [Open Net Environment]. Linux is a component of this. Thats the big picture."
Suns goal for the new, 32-bit Linux workstation, due in the first quarter of next year, is to use it to drive sales of server products running Suns bread and butter, Solaris on SPARC. And officials made clear that Sun will never run Linux on high-end SPARC systems.
"Why would we? Thats not what customers want," said Jonathan Schwartz, executive vice president of Suns software group, in an interview at the Sun Network event. "Our customers want Solaris at that level."
Schwartz criticized plans by IBM to introduce
pSeries servers that run Linux natively, marking the first time IBMs proprietary AIX 5L Unix would not be required to run its top-of-the-line servers. "IBM is abandoning AIX and [hurting] its customer base," he said.
A company spokeswoman in Somers, N.Y., said IBM supports many operating systems but Linux is the fastest-growing. "We are absolutely committed to AIX and have no plans to abandon this powerful operating system. But we are now offering customers the choice of Linux or AIX or both systems on our pSeries servers," she said.
Peter Galli has been a financial/technology reporter for 12 years at leading publications in South Africa, the UK and the US. He has been Investment Editor of South Africa's Business Day Newspaper, the sister publication of the Financial Times of London.He was also Group Financial Communications Manager for First National Bank, the second largest banking group in South Africa before moving on to become Executive News Editor of Business Report, the largest daily financial newspaper in South Africa, owned by the global Independent Newspapers group.
He was responsible for a national reporting team of 20 based in four bureaus. He also edited and contributed to its weekly technology page, and launched a financial and technology radio service supplying daily news bulletins to the national broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Corporation, which were then distributed to some 50 radio stations across the country.
He was then transferred to San Francisco as Business Report's U.S. Correspondent to cover Silicon Valley, trade and finance between the US, Europe and emerging markets like South Africa. After serving that role for more than two years, he joined eWeek as a Senior Editor, covering software platforms in August 2000.
He has comprehensively covered Microsoft and its Windows and .Net platforms, as well as the many legal challenges it has faced. He has also focused on Sun Microsystems and its Solaris operating environment, Java and Unix offerings. He covers developments in the open source community, particularly around the Linux kernel and the effects it will have on the enterprise.
He has written extensively about new products for the Linux and Unix platforms, the development of open standards and critically looked at the potential Linux has to offer an alternative operating system and platform to Windows, .Net and Unix-based solutions like Solaris.
His interviews with senior industry executives include Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Linus Torvalds, the original developer of the Linux operating system, Sun CEO Scot McNealy, and Bill Zeitler, a senior vice president at IBM.
For numerous examples of his writing you can search under his name at the eWEEK Website at www.eweek.com.
Email
Print
