linuxurious's Journal: the inevitable SUN(R) set in the land of GNU/Linux

Most would tell you that sunsets are romantically beautiful and leave behind a tingle of good feeling. The way I see sunsets sometimes is that the sun is going to be out soon.

OK, you may give yourself a pat on your shoulder if you think that I am trying to refer to Sun Microsystems(R). Oh yes, I am referring to Sun Microsystems(R) in its GNU/Linux (ad)ventures. If you have been following, you would have read all about Sun Microsystems(R)'s relative failures in using GNU/Linux to further its competitive advantages, unlike IBM for example (but then IBM has a lot of money to burn, just for fun). Well, I guess the main reason is that Sun Microsystems(R) is still very much a hardware vendor and hence they cannot give up Solaris completely for GNU/Linux. True, Solaris is good but it lacks the vast potential of GNU/Linux (even if Solaris is to be open-sourced now, it would never reach the same level as that of GNU/Linux). Until and unless Sun Microsystems settles for only one OS, it will enjoy limited successes in attracting GNU/Linux-related businesses. Why would one buy a Sun Microsystems(R) box that can run two types of un*x? Sure, it does not make sense even to Sun Microsystems(R) who has to devote some scarce resources for GNU/Linux-related developmental efforts.

Another gripe that the GNU/Linux community has with Sun Microsystems(R) is the level of support of Java on GNU/Linux. Sun Microsystems(R), for the sake of goodwill, should make Java easy available for GNU/Linux. Sure, there are many licensing concerns but all these are typically paperwork (more work for the lawyers, why not) and get Java natively supported in all GNU/Linux.

Sun Microsystems(R) has also recently launched its own GNU/Linux distribution for a series of hardware. Two issues: firstly, no support if you do not purchase the hardware and secondly, it's its own distro and as such adding to the fragmentation pie. Of course, I understand it would be more expensive and not to mention, might be strategically unsound (by classic management rules) to get Red Hat(R) for example to provide the GNU/Linux OS but it is not exactly doing itself a favour by not co-opting one of the major distro-providers. Sun Microsystems should have gotten into an alliance or something and reduced some duplication efforts. It is why IBM does not start its own distro but instead provided help to the general GNU/Linux community at large. No prizes for guessing that you-know-who is sniggering behind the scene at Sun Microsystems(R)' antics.

Sure, there are some other issues that I would to bring up (if I got the time) but they are generally less pressing .. to as whether we will get to see a sunrise the next day will have to depend on Sun Microsystems(R) itself. The ball is literally in their court.