Slashdot Mirror
Sun Opens First Linux Competency Center
McGarnacle writes "Looks like our friends at Sun have opened the first Linux training centers at the headquarters of a Belleville, Ontario firm: beONix Technology. Now there's a worthwhile summer activity for the kids :)"
Red Hat have a couple of hundred, and I'd be willing to bet that they are more Linux centric that Sun would be... this reminds me of their toe-in-the-water efforts over Star Office licensing. They know they can't compete, so they find a niche they can offer, and training/support is the weakest area IMHO...
From Sun's point of view, they need diversity. They've always worked with various groups from Sony to Apple to the open source and free software communities to ensure that there isn't one single platform everyone uses. As long as there is diversity, Sun will be free to innovate.
The moment Giant Software Corp Inc takes over the entire industry and makes it impossible to produce computers that do not run its software, the game is over. Sun would have to choose between selling hardware of a spec defined by GSCI or throwing in the towel, and if it chooses the former it becomes yet another supplier of commodity boxes. Right now, GSCI is Microsoft, and choice means supporting, passively or pro-actively, platforms from GNU, Oracle, IBM, and a whole host of other so-called rivals, because there is a bigger threat to Sun if these disappear than if they continue to compete.
Sun, incidentally, are a pretty good software citizen. They've lead the trend creating open platforms, released the specs and source to things like OpenLook, NIS, NFS, OpenOffice.org, and others right from the get-go. I suspect they'd be more liberal with Solaris if it wasn't for the fact that other people own the copyrights to a lot of the code. Java is the exception, but then Sun knows how easy it would be for a GSCI to kill Java, and it wants to give it a chance. I'd be surprised if Java isn't freed within the next decade though.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
I totally disagree.. And most likely you would to if you ever installed and administered Solaris.
Linux is totally beautiful when it comes to simplicity, the
Linux is a "unix clone" designed for PC's whereas Solaris is designed for large computers. Creating light or thin clients in linux, backed up by the huge support of hardware, and running solaris on the servers is perhaps what Sun has in mind, Solaris on the workstation is too clumsy _imho_.
Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.
Aristotele
I realize that they do make use of linux, but haven't they got their own OS?
Looks to me that this logic works with other companies as well. HP comes to mind as well. The only type of company I would be suprised to find listed in a statement like this is a pure software company that sells an OS. (Microsoft and Novell come to mind first...)
If the hardware manufacturers support Linux then that can only be a good thing.
Kent
Hey, I don't know who YOUR source is but I repair mainframes for NASA. Over here, we think Linux sucks.
One of the problems that I see with the MCSE exam is that anyone can go to a bookstore, pick up a book, and then pass the exam(s). If testing for Linux becomes popular, I would hope that they give the test some integrity. One should have necessary "keyboard" time before becoming certified. Sort of like trade work, they have journeymen programs.
Before it was a good assumption that is someone was a Linux admin, they knew their stuff. Let's keep it that way.