IBM Doubles Rewards For Ditching Sun 207
Taking advantage of the uncertainty surrounding Oracle's acquisition of Sun, IBM has doubled the monetary incentives they are offering to ditch Sun gear. Offering $8,000 in software or services for every Sun Sparc processor ditched for an IBM Power server, the program seems to be paying off. IBM has helped 1,640 customers migrate from other manufacturers' hardware over the last year. "The program applies to Sparc-based Sun hardware, such as the Sparc, UltraSparc, and Sparc 64 servers, and also to Fujitsu systems that run on Sparc chips. A customer that moves off a Sparc-powered system running, say, eight processors would be eligible for up to $64,000 worth of rewards."
Wow IBM, (Score:3, Informative)
WHOOPS!!!! Yes, they do have one. (Score:4, Informative)
Should have looked further down the page. Oracle does indeed have a "Linux on Power" download.
not a good year for McNealy (Score:5, Informative)
"We think we are the good guys. Who has donated more code than us? IBM keeps donating end-of-life code - remnants of roadkill [theregister.co.uk] they've bought
"a year ago is when Sun and MS bought licenses from SCO and SCO filed its lawsuit against IBM [groklaw.net]. And in March a year ago, SCO sued IBM, while Ballmer and McNealy had a round of golf and discussed how to work together. What a coincidence"
Re:Most of them... (Score:1, Informative)
I personally wouldn't do it: IBM's support is expensive and useless.
Re:Most of them... (Score:2, Informative)
I disagree, if only it were that simple.
IBM is targeting SUN, they arn't targeting all computer manufacturers.
The equivelent would be: FORD giving everyone a discount on a new vehicle if they traded in a GM. The guy who owned a DODGE would be out of luck.
It's pretty clear here that IBM is trying to scoop SUN's customer base. This could have been the reason they wanted to aquire SUN in the first place.
Re:Most of them... (Score:4, Informative)
IBM is targeting SUN, they arn't targeting all computer manufacturers.
So what? That has little bearing on the law. There is nothing illegal in the fact that they are targeting one company's client base.
The equivelent would be: FORD giving everyone a discount on a new vehicle if they traded in a GM. The guy who owned a DODGE would be out of luck.
Which would be neither anti-competitive nor illegal. To run with your analogy there is nothing in the law that obligates a dealer to give trade-in discounts to everyone.
It's pretty clear here that IBM is trying to scoop SUN's customer base. This could have been the reason they wanted to aquire SUN in the first place.
Well of course they are trying to take away Sun's old customer's. That's what you see between any competing companies.
Re:The Death of SPARC? (Score:4, Informative)
I don't work in the microelectronics division, so I'm as much an outsider as you when it comes to this stuff. This is the first I've ever heard of the T1 being designed by an acquisition. I was always under the impression it was in-house from start to finish. Could you point me at any sources for this story, beyond the usual blog rumors?
I could speculate as to the truth of this story, but now that I've IDed myself as a Sun employee, I'd get in a lot of trouble for doing so.
I have to strongly disagree with this statement:
If sun had taken the x86 version of T1 given it an hyper transport and sold it to third parties(In the same way that Amd and Intel sell their chips)
it might have taken a good part of the server world.
Not a bloody chance. There is simply no room for another player in the x64 component marketplace. AMD is just barely surviving; even with a grossly superior product, Sun would have to spend huge amounts of money just for the hope of becoming another minor player. And in the process, ruin our relationship with two companies that have helped us turn out a lot of profitable hardware.
Re:Most of them... (Score:4, Informative)
IBM (at least here in Boulder) has a crap-load of Sun hardware sitting idle in a warehouse. When I was working there, we all had Sun boxes under our desks along with IBM and our IBM laptops. Our team each had an Enterprise 250 under our desks.
[John]