Comments on: What Would SOG Do?: Views on Sun

By: tecosystems » Sunset: The Oracle Acquisition Q&A

tecosystems » Sunset: The Oracle Acquisition Q&A — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 22:50:22 +0000

[...] has traditionally made its money, could be a significant distraction? A: Absolutely. I’ve argued in the past that one of Sun’s issues was a lack of focus, and trying to do too much, in too many areas, [...]

By: tecosystems » The Oracle Predicts a Setting Sun

tecosystems » The Oracle Predicts a Setting Sun — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 21:32:52 +0000

[...] the deprecession. But independent of that, certainly focus was a problem. We’ve recommended in the past that Sun decommit from underperforming assets that have either zero or a negative return, and it [...]

By: People Over Process » JavaFX 1.0 Arrives - What Now?

People Over Process » JavaFX 1.0 Arrives - What Now? — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:28:08 +0000

[...] that’s not Adobe, including Sun and Microsoft. But, it’s not too late. I’ll leave the portfolio analysis to Stephen’s comments on Sun, which I pretty much agree [...]

By: People Over Process » IT Management Podcast #27 - What type of cranberry person are you?

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 23:44:46 +0000

[...] topic of Sun, we do the favorite parlor game of playing “what will happen to Sun.” See Stephen O’Grady’s excellent write-up on that topic, as mentioned, as [...]

By: dog

dog — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 19:42:46 +0000

What about becoming the preeminent Java stack?

I’ve seen companies like Azul that do so.. why doesn’t Sun have “Java Mainframes”? Highly tuned machines that will handle tons of transactions and require no upfront tuning.

They could do the same for PHP, Python and Ruby running on the same JVM.

Imagine a system that has all the software it needs so that you hand it a WAR and it runs any application you give it. But it can run up to thousands of simultaneous threads on the same VM.

Worried about security? Get your own “cloud computer” in a box.

By: Miles Clark

Miles Clark — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 19:00:24 +0000

Many good comments here, but I think your take on NetBeans misses the mark. NetBeans has evolved into an excellent tool that acts as a “gateway drug” to Sun’s other offerings. It certainly worked that way in my case, leading me to re-engage with Java and eventually investigate Solaris and Sun’s hardware offerings which were completely off my radar previously. Good developer tools are important to Sun’s business and I don’t think the open source community on its own can provide them. I don’t see the same fit with OpenOffice, as much as I like and use the product.

By: 451 CAOS Theory » 451 CAOS Links 2008.11.28

451 CAOS Theory » 451 CAOS Links 2008.11.28 — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 16:21:51 +0000

[...] What Would SOG Do?: Views on Sun Stephen O’Grady, RedMonk [...]

By: Rex Guo

Rex Guo — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 11:55:00 +0000

As someone with 20+ years of software engineering experience, allow me to offer another way of looking at Java’s relevancy to Sun.

Java is a language and platform. Without languages, no software can be built. Whether Sun makes money from Java is not the point here. Java is a necessary technology to differentiate Sun’s other technologies like Solaris and Glassfish because Java is a first-class citizen on them.

Here are other examples of language/platform technologies that do not make money:
1. Objective-C from Apple – required to write OSX and iPhone applications.
2. .NET from Microsoft – suite of languages for next-generation apps for Windows.
3. DirectX from Microsoft – used by virtually all PC-based and XBox games.
4. ActionScript/Flex from Adobe – Flex SDK is free but the tool/IDE is not.

I think the examples above are enough for all to see a pattern here. This is why Java is necessary for Sun, whether or not it makes money.

By: Rich Sands

Rich Sands — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 22:27:03 +0000

Stephen: I think you’re right on that Sun’s problem is that it is technology-driven. Technology-driven isn’t all bad, but now isn’t the time for it. That probably means the Sun we know probably can’t survive as we know it. My thoughts are at http://rich-sands.com/wordpress/?p=33

By: Stratocaster · What Should Sun Do?

Stratocaster · What Should Sun Do? — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 22:14:07 +0000

[...] I’m piling on too, with a somewhat different take than Tim Bray, Stephen O’Grady, James Governor, and Rich Sharples who’ve all contributed their excellent insights into this [...]