Mad Hatter Preview (Linux Voodoo) [LWN.net]

Linux Voodoo reviews the Mad Hatter desktop preview. "This Sun Java Desktop System is a good product overall, built on the well-established SuSE system with integration from Sun. It delivers what appears to be a very useful desktop OS and it has the chance to make a dent in the Windows monopoly. The same holds true for all of the key Linux players though, so Sun will have to differentiate itself on its quality, hardware, services and reputation."

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Mad Hatter Preview (Linux Voodoo)

Posted Oct 8, 2003 17:46 UTC (Wed) by NAR (subscriber, #1313) [Link] (2 responses)

That article is currently unavailable to my browser, so I haven't read it yet, but there is one thing I don't understand: there was an article here abount an interview with some Sun manager, and he said that Sun does not have any Linux strategy, they don't believe in Linux at all, etc. But this article tells me that they created an own distribution. So what's the point of this distribution, if they don't care about Linux?

Bye,NAR

Mad Hatter Preview (Linux Voodoo)

Posted Oct 8, 2003 23:00 UTC (Wed) by dark (guest, #8483) [Link] (1 responses)

They said that they didn't believe in Linux on the server, but that it was fine on the desktop. It was an interesting reversal of the usual story.

Mad Hatter Preview (Linux Voodoo)

Posted Oct 9, 2003 0:17 UTC (Thu) by proski (guest, #104) [Link]

The usual part of the story is that their beliefs are determined by their business plan.

He reviewed a demo, not a beta system.

Posted Oct 8, 2003 18:41 UTC (Wed) by ccady (guest, #3898) [Link]

Warning: The author (agentorange) claims right up front that he did not review a beta system--he reviewed a Live CD demo.

>> "I was somewhat surprised to find a Live CD version of Mad Hatter instead of an actual beta, but thats okay, I could still see what it was, even if I cannot truly install it."

what could Sun do?

Posted Oct 9, 2003 0:33 UTC (Thu) by coriordan (guest, #7544) [Link]

SUN need to look at the market. GNU/Linux is on the rise, and since it's not tied to a company, there seems to be no reason it won't continue to rise for the next two decades.

If recent articles are accurate, SUNs strength lies in hardcore never-fail hardware, and large java-only enterprise systems. Solaris has a loyal but stagnant install base. They're huge prices are no longer competitive against the Intels and AMDs.

Maybe they could try to compete with for the ever growing GNU/Linux market?

They are going to have to drop their hardware prices a little, but they can't compete on price per cpu cycle. They could aim to be the number 1 alternative to Intel, and bragg about their mission critical experience.

Put some developers into a team to optimise the Sparc back-end of GCC, optimise parts of GLibc by replacing them with Sparc assembly code, profile and optimise Linux for Sparcs. Maintain a set of patches for improving the performance of Java on GNU/Linux systems. Of course they'd have to give this work away, but it's usefulness would be tied to Sparc and Java.

GNU/Linux has over 100 million lines of code, SUN have permission to take part in it's development. It's waiting for them on a plate. Their marketing department must be able to think of something they could do with it.

They *could* release parts of Java as Free Software, and continue to make their java money from enterprise java beans and extensions like that? By liberating the java code, they could share development with the GCJ, Kaffe, and classpath folks.

I don't know. I'm not a java expert etc. Proprietary software and sky high prices works when you have a monopoly. SUN don't.

Ciaran O'Riordan