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Sun CEO Says NetApp Lied in Fear of Open Source

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the ph34r-m3 dept.

Lucas123 writes "In reaction to NetApp's patent infringement lawsuit against Sun, CEO Jonathan Schwartz today said in his blog that NetApp basically lied in its legal filing when it said Sun asked them for licensing fees for use of their ZFS file system technology. In a separate statement, Sun said NetApp's lawsuit is about fear over open-source ZFS technology as a competitive threat. 'The rise of the open-source community cannot be stifled by proprietary vendors. I guess not everyone's learned that lesson'."

2 of 139 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Sun really supports FOSS,,, by AKAImBatman · · Score: 5, Informative

    [Sun has] banned [Java]'s use in any and all internal projects

    Typical urban legend. Propagated by a Slashdot troll no less. With Sun pushing up and coming Java projects like Looking Glass, Darkstar, Glassfish, and many others, one would think that people would have figured it out by now. But apparently not.

    The real story is that after the introduction of Java, Sun started creating new Solaris components in Java. Unfortunately, they found out at the time that Java wasn't mature enough for what they were doing. So a ban was supposedly implemented on any new Solaris components being written in Java. Which (if the story is even true in the first place) was probably a wise move. I don't know if anyone remembers CDE around here, but having to launch Java just to change the volume was not a good design decision. Sun needed to either make the entire Desktop in Java (in which case most of the performance problems would disappear and the memory hit would be marginalized) or go back to using native components for all the widgets. The idea of a hybrid Desktop just wasn't going to cut it.

    As it happens, Sun chose to assist the GNOME project and made that their primary desktop. Then they rebranded it as the "Java Desktop System" in one of the most confusing brand changes in history. And that is where we sit today.

    <paul-harvey>And now you know... the rest of the story. Good day!</paul-harvey>
    --
    Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
  2. Re:Of course Schwartz would say that. by akzeac · · Score: 5, Informative

    So it's incompatible with the GPL, not really 'free software'?

    GPL-compatibility is not a requirement for free software.