Sun Announces Linux Deal With Chinese Government

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'."

Comments

Price wars

[Anonymous Coward]

Microsoft is pricing itself right out of the developing world. Newsflash: 90% of the world can't afford to fork over $500 for office.

Re:Price wars

[N1KO]

I'm pretty sure they know this... maybe they make more money charging $500 to those who can and let the others pirate the software instead of charging everyone $50.

Chances are, they're using the pricing scheme that makes the most money for them.

Re:Linux or Java?

[Frymaster]

What does the Sun Desktop have which Mandrake doesn't (besides star office).

1. support: having worked in a solaris shop in the past, i know that when you finally lay down the bucks for support you get support. your machine craters so bad that stop-a does nothing? there will be a guy in a tweed jacket from sun at your door in 40 minutes. mandrake doesn't do that.
2. unified solution: the os is backed by sun, the hardware is backed by sun, the application is backed by sun. nothing sucks more than having an issue and hearing the vendor support staff blame each other for the failure. if something fails with this rig you make one call.
3. accountability: no one ever got fired for going with ibm. or sun. if something does fail dramatically and you have gone with a "best of breed" (perceived or real) then your boss will be disappointed in the vendor. if you go with a small "indie" vendor like mandrake, your ass is fired.
4. promise of permanence: will mandrake be around next year? if so, will they still be in a condition to honour their contracts? look at the stunt red hat just pulled - there are a lot of pissed off users out there and a lot of admins of small installations who have to explain to their bosses why the company now has to pony up $400 a seat or switch distros. with sun, the chinese feel confident that their vendor will still be around and still be honouring its contracts this time next year. and next year. and the year after.

5. don't get me wrong: i think mandrake make a fine product... but when you've got $50 million of yr boss' money to invest you don't put it on papa's moustache to win in the third. you buy a t-bill.