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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.

3 of 392 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Good for linux(?), probably not good for Sun by FeatherBoa · · Score: 5, Interesting
    What compelling reason is there to buy a Sun box over a the umpteen beige box vendors, IBM, Compaq, Dell, etc?

    Well, Sun has not had to cut a deal with Microsoft in order to remain in business. If there's money to be made (different question entirely) from "major vendor" boxes for running Linux, Sun's in a position to exploit it. The "umteen vendors" have all sold their first-born to Bill.
    Yes, you can buy no-name, but some people need/want to buy name-brand and Sun is a name-brand that is conveniently immune to Microsoft's interference.

  2. Re:Level playing field by azimir · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Just so you know,

    StarOffice was already free for educational institutions, site liscence and all. We love it here and more and more of our people are using it. It costs us less to deploy each copy, both monetarily and time-wise.

    If you dig around the educational parts of Sun's website you'll find much of their sofware is already very cheap for schools.

  3. You are absolutely correct by Ars-Fartsica · · Score: 5, Interesting
    McNealy has been trash talking Microsoft for years. Look at where it has gotten Sun shareholders.

    Scott had the opportunity to make nice a few years back like Steve Jobs, and just accept the inevitable - Bill controls a huge swath of the computing market. Admitting such helped keep Apple in the game, and it got some good MS software on OSX quickly.

    I'm not saying that MS and Sun would exactly be in bed today had Scott made nice, but certainly a less adversarial approach could have kept Sun out of the crosshairs.