Sun's opinion regarding Linux is much less important than Oracle's

Sun's opinion regarding Linux is much less important than Oracle's

Posted Sep 20, 2003 15:59 UTC (Sat) by ironhacker (guest, #11389)
Parent article: Sun's Schwartz Speaks Out on Linux, SCO (eWeek)

People buy Sun boxes mostly to run Oracle. Nobody chooses the OS first and then says, "Gee, let's think about which database to use on this snazzy new Solaris box we just selected."

As soon as Oracle's Linux support achieves parity with their Solaris support, it will be tough to convince any new customers to pick Solaris. Some people say we are at that point already. At the moment, I think the concept of equality of support is mostly hype and press releases, but the day of reckoning is coming.

Linux could easily take over the low-end server space, and it might take the middle as well. The high-end Sun boxes are a different story. Notice how Microsoft had no problem taking over the low end server space, they made a push for the middle, and (after all these years) they have never seriously threatened the high end. Maybe Solaris will be relegated to high-end only. If so, I wonder how Sun expects to survive.

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