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    Home Development
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    Suns Linux Plan Extends Support

    By
    Peter Galli
    -
    April 7, 2003
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      Sun Microsystems Inc., which has tried various strategies for its Solaris and Linux operating systems on x86 hardware, has crafted a plan that calls for expanded support for third-party products.
      The plan, announced last week, will have Sun support several standard Linux distributions rather than a single Sun-customized version.
      Sun will also release this year a new class of hardware and expand support for x86 hardware to other vendors, said John Loiacono, vice president of Suns operating platforms group, at a Sun town meeting here.

      The Santa Clara, Calif., company has no plans to support Linux or Solaris on Intel Corp. Itanium processors but is evaluating Advanced Micro Devices Inc.s forthcoming Opteron processor because of its backward 32-bit compatibility, Loiacono said. Sun is also focusing on its Project Orion, which will integrate the components of the Sun ONE application stack into Solaris over time and which will also be available on Linux.

      For some Sun customers, the companys Linux strategy is a moving target.

      “[Suns strategy is] still very muddy,” said John Groenveld, an associate research engineer at Penn State Universitys Applied Research Laboratory, in State College, Pa. “I think its a work in progress.”

      ARL runs low-end and high-end Sun SPARC systems. Groenveld said the mistakes made by Sun over the past few years have not gone unnoticed. For example, he cited the uncertainty Sun created last year around whether the company would ship a version of Solaris 9 for x86, which it did.

      “Im also deeply troubled by the upcoming enterprise Linux client, known as Project Mad Hatter,” said Groenveld. “This project involves bundling StarOffice, Ximian [Inc.]s corporate office productivity applications and some call center applications with a Java Smart Card reader. Im concerned that it will compete with Suns existing Sun Ray thin-client business.”

      Alan DuBoff, president of consultancy Software orchestration Inc., in San Jose, Calif., agreed that Sun has made mistakes, particularly around its Linux strategy, which initially was “confusing and not that well thought out.”

      “To be honest,” DuBoff added, “I still do not completely understand their Linux strategy, but I am becoming more confident in their Solaris x86 strategy the more I hear about it.”

      That said, customers do welcome Suns support of standard Linux distributions and an expanded x86 hardware line. Penn States Groenveld said the company appeared to be slowly “waking up to the fact” that its customers are not looking for Linux solutions but rather inexpensive 32-bit x86 solutions. “For a company that has been so tied to its SPARC architecture, this is a monumental achievement,” Groenveld said.

      Suns Loiacono is confident the company is up to the challenge. “I am aware of the customer skepticism out there, but, over time, customers will see that we are committed to this strategy,” he said.

      Peter Galli
      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.

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