Sun's Linux Exec Departs

HyperbolicParabaloid writes "The NY Times (free reg blah blah) has an article about the departure of Sun's no.2 exec, but also mentions that Stephen DeWitt, the vice president of an important business unit that leads Sun's efforts with the Linux operating system, quietly left Sun on Friday, the company confirmed today."" And the question is: How will this affect projects like OpenOffice release and the on-again, off-again McNealy Linux relationship.

Comments

Rock and a Hard Place?

[Dark Paladin]

Overall, Sun seems to be stuck between that proverbial rock and a hard place when it comes to Linux.

Linux is probably their #1 competitor, and #1 hope. If I have a choice between Solaris, or Red Hat, I'd pick Red Hat every time. Cheaper, runs on cheaper hardware, and I still get great support for $60 to $240 a year, as well as getting all the power of Open Source, which is making Linux more powerful every single day.

If they support Linux, then they become another fish in the ocean with IBM, HP, Red Hat, and others, and they have to compete as one. If they support Solaris, then they can make the rules - but watch as their market shares erodes thanks to that "cheap, open system".

So what can Sun do? Good question. Java is probably Sun's best product, and perhaps it would be best if IBM bought Sun and then open sourced Java to keep combatting the .Net initiative.

But either way, I love watching the competition, and that's the #1 reason why I'm glad Linux is on the market.

Re:Rock and a Hard Place?

[pmz]

Cheaper

Not any more.

runs on cheaper hardware

Not when your professional reputation is at stake.

as well as getting all the power of Open Source, which is making Linux more powerful every single day.

Remember that most Open Source software works well on Solaris, also.

So what can Sun do?

Both. Solaris and Linux can each be a perfect fit for diffent Sun customers. Would I buy an entry-level server from Sun with Linux, if Linux were my OS preference? Certainly. Would I buy an entry-level server from Sun with Solaris, if Solaris were my OS preference? Certainly.

My point is that Sun is a hardware company, who produced Solaris to fully support their hardware. The hardware speaks for itself. CPU2000 zealots out there, who think the Pentium 4 is the Supreme Being, don't see the larger picture, which is that Sun hardware is typically very well-rounded and very well-engineered. They build their hardware from the CPU innards on out to be consistent and robust.

I do bet my reputation on a well-configured network of Sun servers. I could also bet my reputation on a network of Intel-based servers, but I know from experience this is a riskier choice. And this remains fairly independent of whether I am using Solaris or Linux, because the hardware has its own merits.

Effect OpenOffice??

[nachoman]

I don't think this will effect OpenOffice at all. It has been unleashed to the open source community, so even if Sun *wants* to abandon it, someone else can pick it up.

What about Java. There are currently 3 main platforms for Java pushed by Sun: Solaris, Windows and Linux. Mac also, but this is more of a push from Apple. I'd be much more concerned with what might happen with Java than OpenOffice.

Sun's in trouble

[Alexander]

DeWitt, was a very talented CEO and did great things for Cobalt.

His leaving will have absolutely NO direct effect on Open Office (there's a political assumption made by the poster that doesn't fit), and might be a good thing for Linux in Cobalt.

In fact, the sooner Sun realizes it is in a very difficult position because of x86 Linux, the better. The Cobalt appliances are overpriced and underpowered, the Cobalt line has all sorts of issues, the not the least of which is a non-standard distribution. Standard Distribution is what the customer wants, not an appliance. Linux seems to be eating Sun's lunch as much, if not more, than NT.

The Solaris faction will never allow Linux to co-exist peacefully within Sun, the SPARC faction will never adopt x86, not to mention push x86 Linux, so neither the software side nor the hardware side, politically, will ever truly adopt Linux.

Furthermore, the sales force is keen on the BIG hardware sale. No Sun sales person wants to sell a $2,000 x86 Linux box.

About the best thing you can say for Linux within Sun is there's a small amount of hope that the former iPlanet team will maintain some semblance of autonomy with regards to OS support for their software. Unfortunately, Sun marketing can't position them to gain mindshare against competing technologies, so the hope is fairly small (and I might add that the ONLY reason that iPlanet has any real non-Solaris support is because it's the Netscape Enterprise stuff).

No, Sun is not in a good position as Linux starts charging into it's space. It's already killed the small workstation market for them (mmmmm.... IPC), UNIX shops that were buying SPARC 20s in the mid 90s for IP services have mostly migrated to some "free" UNIX on x86, and now IBM is pushing big Linux iron (FYI, there was a point not too long ago when IBM Global sold more SPARC than Sun sales force.... interesting when viewing the ramifications of IBM's Linux Lovin'). I've made assumptions here about Linux being able to succeed in what's left in Sun's core space, but I'd imagine that by now IBM, Dell, and HPAQ have all realized that the sooner they are able to push x86 Linux into competition with Sun where they've reallly had little, the better. After all, to these guys, it's all about either volume (Dell) or services (IBM/HPAQ). Dell's a price point leader with good enough quality, and IBM/HPAQ realize that (at least in the "enterprise space" they both have big profitable niche's outside of where they compete with Sun and their services arm) their hardware/software efforts are simply the tools to sell more services, and if they can sell hardware/software profitably, good for those business units.

A Sun shareholder or fan can only hope that these mix ups bring about a new focus from within Sun - but frankly McNealy will have to turn the charging elephant, it'll take a heck of a turnaround with HUGE amounts of organizational change.

It had to be tense being the Linux person at Sun

[DaveWood]

Printing $50,000 Solaris CD binders is a major source of profit for Sun, and they are not in a position to endanger any sources of profit right now.

Linux is already putting the big hurt on Solaris' server marketshare. Remember, unlike Microsoft, Sun is in the untenable position of competing _directly_ with a free product. Solaris X86 was a response to the nascent Linux threat (a dismal failure, as any closed source product was bound to be, even if it didn't suck goat ass to begin with). The disastrous reluctance to support Linux Java was another byproduct of Linux Paranoia at Sun.

But the Java issue clarified things a bit for the Sun people. They saw that trying to isolate and marginalize Linux would hurt Java, and then began to realize that it could hurt their whole company. They began to wonder if Linux's rise might be inexorable. Inevitable. That was when things started to change. The Cobalt acquisition, the Gnome support, the Open Office work... and of course the tier 1 Java support.

But when hard times come, people look at the P&L and they get the Fear. Bold, risky moves like moving towards Linux start to be questioned. You become desperate about the bottom line _right now_. I don't know if this is why DeWitt left or not, but I imagine what he represents could be feared inside Sun.

I expect cooler heads to prevail, eventually. Sun will continue to sell Solaris forever. But eventually, when the numbers finally work out, they will start offering "Sun Linux," hopefully with some useful "value adds," on progressively more expensive hardware, and as Solaris 3rd party development slows and Linux 3rd party development accellerates, Solaris will eventually be relegated to legacy status, and hopefully by then Sun will have emulated IBM's rise into the services sector.