Let’s generalise. Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols does in his article Solaris on Intel: Here We Go Again. Journalists get paid to sensationalise something, so people read the articles they write, so that the publication sells (or gets viewed), so the author stays employed.
That’s all I can assume that is going through Steven’s head when he wrote the article, because he manages to contradict himself in a matter of paragraphs.
Steven wants Sun to embrase Linux in a better fashion and believes that Solaris x86 is simply a business move to steal customers away from Linux. Even though, he himself points out that we ported Star Office to Linux more quickly than the x86 version. So he says we should support Linux more, but when we do we are undermining it. Good one. Loser.
It was only in February of this year that StarOffice for Solaris x86 appeared, long after versions for Windows, Linux and Solaris on SPARC had been out for ages.
So, what’s really going on here? I don’t think you have to look far to see what the real story is. Sun, while officially on the Linux bandwagon, is continuing to rail against the leading commercial Linux company—and ironically enough its own best Linux partner—Red Hat Inc.
Once more, Sun is using Solaris on Intel not for its own virtues, but as a pawn for other business purposes. First, it was a way to try to get people off the Intel platform to SPARC. Now, it’s being used to try to stem the tide of people moving away from SPARC to Linux on Intel. It didn’t work that well the first time; I don’t think it will work that well this time.
So, Sun, would you please either really embrace Linux or just dump it from your inventory, start really pushing Solaris on Intel and declare it the one, true, Sun x86 way? This going back and forth hurts you more than it does the cause of commercial Linux.
Maybe the reason we released a Linux version first is because we know it is more worth while spending the money on developing because that is where the user base is. But why say that, it’s not sensationalist and doesn’t promote readership.
One Comment
Tisk.
Clearly you don’t know your own company. Sun alternates between embracing Linux and trying to kill it. And, the same could be said for Solaris x86. A case in point, Sun _refused_ to bring StarOffice to Solaris x86, until vocal and public comments finally forced them to. So, Sun is pro-Linux? Fast forward a couple of months, I ask the Director of x86 marketing what their plans are for Linux. He tells me that Sun will Not push Linux sales unless a business already has a Linux infrastructure, so what do they recommend? Solaris x86, of course.
What I want is for Sun to make up its mind as to what the heck it’s x86 strategy really is. I’m not being contradictory, I’m simply expressing my frustration at a company, to pick another example, that says it’s pro-Linux one minute and then the next its president is telling everyone that its primary Linux partner’s, Red Hat, operating system is proprietary. Argh!
Steven
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