Sun needs x86 drivers

Posted Jul 17, 2003 19:38 UTC (Thu) by stuart2048 (guest, #6241)
Parent article: SCO insider trading watch

IMHO...

Sun is trying to reinvigorate its Solaris x86 platform. As usual, the problem is device drivers. SCO has the drivers and Sun licensed them. Rather than pay full in cash, it looks like they worked at a part cash, part stock deal.

I can see why a lot of people might think Sun and Linux are competitors. But surely it can be only good for Sun that Linux is building demand for the Unix model.

Sun needs x86 drivers

Posted Jul 18, 2003 11:40 UTC (Fri) by jzb (editor, #7867) [Link]

But surely it can be only good for Sun that Linux is building demand for the Unix model.

Um, have you not been paying attention to the attrition of customers from Sun to Linux? Linux isn't building demand for the Unix model, it's building demand for Linux -- something Sun hasn't quite figured out, or is unwilling to learn. People aren't using Linux and then saying "hey, I want to go out and get a proprietary version of something like this that's far more expensive, not much better, with vendor lock-in and really expensive hardware."

But a lot of people who have been using Solaris, Aix and other proprietary Unix systems are looking at Linux and saying "hey, this is just as good, or good enough, and it runs on far cheaper hardware, costs less and I can pick and choose my vendors -- or support it myself. I'm in!"

Even more than Microsoft, Sun has a lot to lose from the success of Linux unless they can figure out how to make money from it -- which doesn't seem to be happening, since most of their Linux efforts are half-hearted and mostly just seem to be ways to let their sales force say "hey, we have Linux solutions, but look at this Solaris solution over here..."