Sun's Trading Symbol Going From SUNW To JAVA

Mortimer.CA writes "Straight from Jonathan Schwartz's weblog, Sun is changing their ticker symbol from SUNW to JAVA: 'JAVA is a technology whose value is near infinite to the internet, and a brand that's inseparably a part of Sun (and our profitability). [...] To be very clear, this isn't about changing the company name or focus — we are Sun, we are a systems company, and we will always be a derivative of the students that created us, Stanford University Network is here to stay. But we are no longer simply a workstation company, nor a company whose products can be limited by one category — and Java does a better job of capturing exactly that sentiment than any other four letter symbol.'"

Not sure if this is a good idea

[jpfed]

Hmm... while many programmers are powered by java, all life on Earth is powered at least indirectly by the Sun.

Get a website or something

[florin]

In related news, Steve Balmer was spotted replacing his previous 'ZUNE4ME' vanity plates with a fresh set which sports the slogan 'JAVAL0L'..

Seriously though, I don't think Java is a particularly big reason for people to like Sun, and tying your company's future to it seems ill-advised.

Microsoft is changing their's too...

[AccUser]

Look out for BSOD on a stock ticker near you. Unless you are running a real operating system, that is.

four letter symbols

[OnyxLilninja]

But we are no longer simply a workstation company, nor a company whose products can be limited by one category -- and Java does a better job of capturing exactly that sentiment than any other four letter symbol.

I can think of some four letter symbols that express the sentiment a bit better...

Re:It's only the stock ticker

[brajesh]

AAPL -> JOBS?

Of course...

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course Stanford University Network is here to stay, what would Stanford University do without it?

The full quote regarding Sun's symbol change

[lancejjj]

The quote was truncated. Here it is in its totality:

"But we are no longer simply a workstation company, nor a company whose products can be limited by one category -- and Java does a better job of capturing exactly that sentiment than any other four letter symbol.

Our first choice was the even more accurate DEAD, but that symbol was already taken by Emerson Burial Caskets."

Re:Not sure if this is a good idea

[abolitiontheory]

Yeah, what next? Microsoft changes their ticker to SUCK?

Perhaps they're trying to increase share price...

[Anonymous Coward]

...because in my experience, Java increases the size of things by at least 25%.

/. questions are SO easy these days...

[Anonymous Coward]

Who trades under "SUN"?

Why, everyone under the SUN, of course!

Re:Not sure if this is a good idea

[jimstapleton]

No, they don't have a product named SUCK.

It'll be "C#" or ".NET". Sure, some of those characters may not be allowed, but with a little of the green lubricant, which MS has more than enough to spare, I'm sure wall street will be willing to have it's gears greased in taht direction.

Re:Not sure if this is a good idea

[Megane]

They may not have a product _named_ SUCK, but they do have the ZUNE. That's got four letters and describes Microsoft almost as well as JAVA describes Sun.

Can SCO change theirs?

[Jason Levine]

If so, I have some suggestions:

TOAST
KAPUT
DEAD
MLTDN
NOCSE
PWNED <---- I hated to put that last one in there, but after the way the judge ruled against them and given their current situation, I think it applies nicely.

LNUX

[DogDude]

This message is brought to you by "LNUX": A company that has nothing to do with "Linux" anymore, and has only made money by selling off pieces of itself. (Slashdot is owned by Sourceforge, which used to be VA Linux, etc.).

In other words, changing their ticker name to "JAVA" doesn't necessarily bode well.

Re:Not sure if this is a good idea

[hedleyroos]

... all life on Earth is powered at least indirectly by the Sun

You've obviously never seen our sys admin. Gaah, you said indirectly and ruined my joke!

Re:Not sure if this is a good idea

[SL Baur]

No, BSOD.

Packages

[ilikejam]

# cd /shared/pkg
# pkgadd -d . SUNWzlib
pkgadd: ERROR: no package associated with <SUNWzlib>
# ls | grep SUNW
# ls | head
JAVA1251f
JAVA1394h
JAVA1394x
JAVA5ttf
J AVA5xmft
JAVA5xplx
JAVAa2psr
JAVAa2psu
JAVAacc r
JAVAaccu
# echo Bastards
Bastards
# pkgadd -d . JAVAzlib
Processing package instance <JAVAzlib> from ......

Re:Not sure if this is a good idea

[brusk]

And then they could go from SUCK to BLOW.

New Slogan?

[pragma_x]

Java: Brand Once, Market Everywhere.

Re:Not sure if this is a good idea

[tehshen]

But if you turn it upsidedown, swap the letters round... [bdmonkeys.net]

Re:s/Java/Microsoft/g

[Maltheus]

Funny how if you replace the original poster's user id from Teckla to mattgreen, you'd be arguing against yourself right now.

What's your point?

Re:The horse is dead, quit beating it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Java is as popular as Windows. But think who uses Windows in the first place.

I'll let the videos speak: http://plone.org/about/movies [plone.org] ("Better Web App Development")

Re:Uhm.

[nuzak]

Train stations are where trains come to a stop. My desk has a workstation.