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

Right Appointee Capitizes on Sun's UNIX

[4of12]

Sun is facing an inexorable onslaught.

If they thought "Wintel" was creeping up their food chain, "Lintel" is lower priced still and hungrier for the UNIX market.

Sun needs to capitalize on its UNIX experience and to become part of the Linux solution, rather than reactively viewing circumstances as the Linux problem. They've made some good moves already, in terms of StarOffice acquisition and having some developers work on Gnome. But they need a coordinated vision that puts everything together. E15K database ervers working well with Linux server appliances which interact well through all the built-up Unix infrastructure (NFS, etc.)

IBM and HP have already seen the handwriting on the wall and are doing things to take advantage of the shifts going on in the marketplace.

Sun certainly has a lot to offer, they should put someone in charge who knows how to leverage that UNIX experience and to grow new markets based on their existing network of sales staff.

Java could figure prominently in such a strategy; but promoting Linux on SPARC seems to be more of an uphill battle, AFAICT.

If Sun was smart...

[Brian Stretch]

...they'd embrace the upcoming AMD Hammer architecture and build high-end Linux/Hammer workstations and entry- to mid-level servers around them. Kind of a Sun/Linux meets Apple deal: clean product line, not a lot of overlap, well designed, very cool. I say Linux rather than Solaris if only because it's impossible to do Solaris/x86 device drivers for everything, whereas Linux has a decent chance.

Of course, that'd freak out their SPARC people, so they'll never do it. Pity.

But they now have Whitfield Diffie!

[abischof]

They may have lost their Linux Exec, but they recently acquired Whitfield Diffie! (For those not aware, Whitfield Diffie is one of the inventors of public-key cryptography, the technology used in PGP and elsewhere)

Re:The Financial Analysis

[scrytch]

"Sun goes through executives faster than french pastries at a Weighwatcher's convention."

Huh, a tired form of a joke that wanted to be said so the first company that came to mind was popped in. They still have the same CEO. Same chief scientist. Matter of fact, the top still looks a lot like it did just out of Stanford.

Don't let that stand in the way of being ... funny?