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Sun Announces Linux Deal With Chinese Government

Posted by simoniker on from the one-million-users dept.

Infonaut writes "Scott McNealy announced today at Comdex that Sun Microsystems has made a deal with China for a million desktop Linux deployments under the new $50/seat licensing plan for Sun's desktop software, which includes its Star Office 7.0 productivity program. Whether this will translate into renewed profits for Sun remains to be seen, but according to McNealy, it represents 'the No. 1 Linux desktop play on the planet'."

5 of 368 comments (clear)

  1. So is "Sun" in Chinese phone books now? by Fux+the+Penguin · · Score: 3, Informative
    Another article in a similar vein

    From the article:
    Sun Microsystems Inc. has scored a deal with a Chinese technology consortium to distribute its Java Desktop System to citizens of China, the company said Monday.

    The China Standard Software Company (CSSC) has selected Sun as its preferred technology partner to help provide a nationwide standard desktop software system to China's 1.3 billion citizens, according to Sun.


    100% of 1.3 BILLION PEOPLE. That's some hella marketshare right there. Ballmer must be scratching his big hairless monkey-head.
  2. Re:Linux or Java? by 1lus10n · · Score: 5, Informative

    The java enterprise desktop is based on SuSe linux. It basically is SuSe with some value add-ons and support.

    --
    "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe." --Albert Einstein
  3. Re:Linux or Java? by 1lus10n · · Score: 4, Informative

    Not to go over board with propaganda (I work for Sun).

    The Simple reason is: its cheaper to buy this from us than the cost to develop an equivelant setup.

    The more in depth reason is: because star office is better than openoffice (MOST of the code is the same, not all) they would have to license a JRE to include in their distro, and they wouldnt have the support structure that Sun has.

    --
    "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe." --Albert Einstein
  4. Re:Linux or Java? by MasterD · · Score: 4, Informative

    It doesn't. It uses Mozilla for the browser. There is no java component of the Java Desktop except for the JVM. Evolution is the email client. Gaim for IM. StarOffice is the office suite. Totem for A/V. And Gnome 2.4 w/ Nautilus for the Desktop.

  5. Re:Linux or Java? by edwdig · · Score: 3, Informative

    Sun (and most companies) prefer Gnome over KDE due to toolkit licensing. GTK is LGPL, but Qt is GPL. So you can release closed source apps for Gnome without buying any licenses, but you'd have to spend a few thousand on Qt licenses (remember, the Qt licensing is per developer) to make a closed source KDE app.

    I personally consider KDE to be far better than Gnome, both from a user's standpoint and a developer's standpoint. I usually avoid C++ when possible, but I really like Qt. Unfortunately it's licensing will kill KDE in the long run.