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Sun To Sell Linux PCs

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the reluctant-suitor dept.

Rubbersoul writes "Reuters.com is reporting that in "a bid to undermine arch-rival Microsoft Corp" Sun is going to jump into selling low cost Linux PCs. The article is a bit low on technical details, but is interesting none the less. Also if you take this new news with a story from yesterday about Sun pushing StarOffice for schools around the world, you really start to get an idea that sun wants to beat MS like a red headed step child ..." An editorial in the WorldTechTribute argues that Sun's education-market giveaway is exactly the sort of behavior that Microsoft has been attacked for in the past.

6 of 392 comments (clear)

  1. Other Columns by Scott McCollum by Tim+Colgate · · Score: 5, Informative
    Scott McCollum, who wrote the editorial in WorldTechTribune - you may remember him from other choice articles:

    New Linux virus creates peer-to-peer terror network
    HP finally fires their anti-business business strategist for Linux
    Disbanding the RIAA will turn the music scene into 17th Century Europe
    The GPL, open source freedoms and the Cold War

    This last article has this classic quote:

    The small minority of geeks who adhere to the cultish mindset of the GPL and Linux will definitely take offense to this, but there is no reasoning with someone who blindly follows the precepts of open source and the GPL ...those people will never understand why the NSA would reject the GPL. For rational people, I can sum up exactly why the GPL is not and in its current form will never be useful for the NSA or any similar enterprise: "Open" is the exact opposite of "secure."

  2. New York Times Report: Different Focus by Pinky3 · · Score: 3, Informative

    The New York Times article,
    The New Sun Ready to Push Linux as Alternative to Microsoft, emphasizes the push for Linux and StarOffice, without any mention of hardware. All of these articles are guessing what Sun is going to say tomorrow, when the offical announcement is to be made.

  3. Re:Sun's education-market giveaway by y_a_duck · · Score: 2, Informative

    Perhaps most /.-ers are too young to remember that Apple gained much of its popularity by donating massive numbers of Apple IIs to schools. It worked, for awhile.

  4. Giving away StarOffice != giving away Windows by Eloquence · · Score: 5, Informative
    First, you should know that the author of the editorial is the same troll that wrote brilliant articles like "The jihad against Microsoft":

    Torvalds posted his Unix rip-off dubbed "Linux" on the Internet in 1991 for free. True to his family's socialist radical politics, Torvalds released his OS under the non-standard General Public License (GPL) or "copyleft." Under the GPL, programmers had the ability to download Torvalds' Linux, fix the bugs in his program and give the improved program back to him to distribute to the Linux community. GPL programs are essentially community property with no real owners, but since Torvalds was the originator of the rip-off, it becomes his personal rip-off to control as he wishes. In other words, Torvalds became the dictatorial leader of the Linux cult with all decisions for the greater community good going through him first, then doled out at his convenience.

    Let's all move Scott McCollum into our collective killfiles and move on, shall we? Furthermore, the key difference between Sun's donation and Microsoft's, besides the fact that Sun is not a monopoly, is that Sun has open sourced Star Office. To gloss over this little fact is typical for a professional troll like McCollum. While Star Office itself is not open, it's an open platform, and the differences between SO and OO are minor. So even if SO/OO were to become the standard, it would always be easy to move somewhere else if necessary (and you can bet someone will fork OO if Sun does something fishy).

  5. Re:UNIX companies don't understand PC hardware.. by Salsaman · · Score: 3, Informative
    When people buy PC hardware, they expect to pay PC hardware prices.

    So what's your point ? These boxes ought to be cheaper than Wondows PC's because the OS and Office suite on them is free.

    And they want support. And warranties.

    Are you claiming that Sun can't offer support and warranties ?

  6. Re:Sun? Low cost by magellan · · Score: 3, Informative

    "At Sun $15.000 would qualify for that..."

    Where have you been?

    SPARC/Solaris Servers from Sun start at $995.

    SPARC/Solaris Workstations from Sun start at $995.