I can think of several other excellent commercial distros on the market that Sun could probably acquire for a fraction of the price. So Sun could come up with the cash, but the resulting Sun-Novell Microsystems had better be a highly profitable business, or there are going to be a lot of ticked off shareholders.Ī more interesting question would be to ask why Sun is so keen to take over SUSE. Sun has estimated reserves of US$7.61 billion, a legacy from the dotcom bubble days. Novell bought SUSE last year for a mere US$210 million, but Novell itself is currently valued at a cool US$2.64 billion. Growing your business by purchasing a competitor is a time-honored tradition in corporate America, but it's an expensive hobby. One can only hope that Sun will get it right next time. Even relatively friendly reviews have been lukewarm at best. However, JDS has been through two releases now and has received some scathing reviews. When JDS was first announced, many had high initial expectations that Sun would become a formidable Linux competitor. JDS costs US$100 and includes the StarOffice suite. Despite the name, Sun JDS has little to do with Java - it's a reworked version of SUSE Linux. With that in mind, the Sun Java Desktop System was launched in December 2003, and version 2 was released in May 2004. On the other hand, Linux users were miffed to learn that Sun was quietly paying a hefty licensing fee to SCO (though it pales in comparison to Microsoft's contribution to SCO's war-chest).Įvidently, it has dawned on Sun that the company needs to reinvent itself. And Sun just recently announced that Solaris 10 will comply with the Linux Standard Base (LSB), thus allowing Linux apps to run on Solaris. #Outguess hide text in photos code#Sun offers a Linux-friendly license for Java (though it is not GPL), and the company generously donated large chunks of code from Sun StarOffice to create OpenOffice. Which is a pity, because compared to many other big IT companies, Sun has been a decent corporate citizen. #Outguess hide text in photos free#Given that home hobbyists can now slap together a powerful server for US$500 or less, and run a free OS, where does that leave Sun?Īpparently, with a shrinking market. #Outguess hide text in photos software#On the software side, no one doubts that Solaris is a very powerful server-oriented OS, but Windows, Linux and *BSD have all become increasingly capable and feature-rich. Aside from rock solid hardware, Sun's other great claim to fame is the Solaris operating system.Įven today, a significant portion of the Internet runs on SPARC boxes, but Sun's market share has been eroding steadily mostly thanks to the increasing performance of low-cost x86 machines. Sun's main product lineup includes servers and workstations (traditionally based on SPARC processors, though Sun is now dabbling with the x86). For those who need a refresher course, Sun came into existence in 1984, and went on to become king of the server business. Certainly, most readers of DistroWatch are familiar with Sun, even if only a small percentage of you have actually used Sun's hardware and software. A quick look at Sun's share price is certainly not encouraging.īut first let's backtrack and take a look at Sun's survival scheme over the years. There are a number of credible sources - like this one and this one - who seem to believe that Sun is setting fast. Why is this so funny? Mainly because Sun can't afford it. At least, that's according to a story on ZDNet (and ZDNet doesn't usually kid around). It's either too early or too late for April Fool's, so this has to be taken seriously - Sun Microsystems wants to buy Novell. Sun Mulls Buying Novell - Shop Till You Drop?
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