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IBM About To Buy Sun For $7 Billion

plasticsquirrel was one of several readers to send in the sharpening rumors that IBM is on the verge of acquiring Sun Microsystems, as we discussed last week. The pricetag is reportedly $7 billion. According to the NYTimes's sources, "People familiar with the negotiations say a final agreement could be announced Friday, although it is more likely to be made public next week. IBM's board has already approved the deal, they said." After the demise of SGI, one has to wonder about the future of traditional Unix. If the deal goes through, only IBM, HP, and Fujitsu will be left as major competitors in the market for commercial Unix. And reader UnanimousCoward adds, "Sun only came into the consciousness of the unwashed masses with the company not being able to get E10K's out the door fast enough in the first bubble. We here will remember some pizza-box looking thing, establishing 32 MB of RAM as a standard, and when those masses were scratching their heads at slogans like 'The Network is the Computer.' Add your favorite Sun anecdote here."

34 of 699 comments (clear)

  1. IBM SUN? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Wow, IBM is buying our Sun for only 7 Billion US dollars? What are they going to use the Sun for though? Something sinister, probably to power their ultimate War Machine and conquer the EARTH!

  2. The singular of "War Stories" is "Anecdote" by idontgno · · Score: 3, Funny

    I remember rockin' coffee machines in the break rooms of their education centers. It's no mystery their most successful product is named "Java".

    --
    Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
  3. The next headline is... by RancidPickle · · Score: 5, Funny

    IBM today announced the outsourcing of 90% of Sun employees. "This will save us a good chunk of the $7B we paid for them," said an IBM representative.

    Meanwhile, in Washington, IBM was approved to receive $3B in taxpayer money from the Keep America Working fund.

    --
    "First things first, but not necessarily in that order."
    - Doctor Who
  4. Re:Do Not Want by drinkypoo · · Score: 2, Funny

    Woh. Hold on. Wait. Please, I beg of you, save Sun's software from IBM's slow moving process and lack of usability.

    I must confess that while I have used Solaris, the only thing I have ever cared about from Sun enough to bitch is Java and Java related thingies.

    I think you have just proved that Java is a fluke. Solaris is... well, it's Solaris. What more need be said?

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  5. I just want to know.... by greenguy · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...when I should start going back to calling things "IBM-compatible."

    --
    What if I do the same thing, and I do get different results?
  6. Re:What IBM get's for 7B by AKAImBatman · · Score: 5, Funny

    I don't see IBM maintaining two operating systems long term.

    You don't know IBM very well, then.

  7. Re:"commercial UNIX" by MightyYar · · Score: 5, Funny

    It has lost most of the characteristics people identify as Unix though.

    The usable GUI? :)

    --
    W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
  8. Liptstick by G3ckoG33k · · Score: 1, Funny

    You're right, there is no need to put lipstick on the pig.

    1. Re:Liptstick by Aqualung812 · · Score: 2, Funny

      That's a sexist comment, according to US politics. Your karma is gonna burn!

      --
      Grammer Nazis - I mod you "troll" unless you actually add something on-topic. Yes, I know I have mispellings in my sig.
  9. IBM About To Buy Sun For $7 Billion by malchus6 · · Score: 5, Funny

    wow that's one hot piece of real estate.... (sorry)

    --
    You can fool some of the people all of the time ... and those are the ones you should concentrate on.
    1. Re:IBM About To Buy Sun for $7 Billion by maxwell+demon · · Score: 2, Funny

      I'm willing to sell them [...] Mars for $1.5 Billion

      A candy bar for $1.5 billion? Seems a bit expensive. :-)

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  10. Re:"commercial UNIX" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    OS X is a unix. It is commercial in that it's being sold and to a large market. I don't see the problem.

    The difference being the market. One is a server market, the other is a cult.

  11. Those were the days... by wytten · · Score: 4, Funny

    Back in college in the 1980's I administered a cluster of Sun2's with 160MB rack mounted hard drives. You could define those days as when a "hard drive" would kill you if dropped on your head from a height of 3 feet.

  12. Makes one wonder... by denzacar · · Score: 4, Funny

    How much would they be willing to pay for some other celestial body. Say for example... Uranus?

    --
    Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
  13. Re:"commercial UNIX" by rolfwind · · Score: 5, Funny

    The difference being the market. One is a server market, the other is a cult.

    You mean a religion. A cult is a religion that just started out and has yet to garner success.

    Besides, Apple can claim to be a derivative of Christianity and/or Judaism, giving it instant credibility. One has the Book of Job, and I'm sure the other has the book of Jobs. And every other products is sold as the second coming.

  14. Sunlight Neutrality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    "IBM About To Buy Sun For $7 Billion...in other related news, IBM representatives are scheduled to speak in front of Congress today regarding their proposed plan to 'throttle' luminous energy from the newly-acquired Sun based on a multi-tiered priority structure with various governments, multinational corporations, and non-governmental organizations..."

  15. Next on their list by Amazing+Quantum+Man · · Score: 5, Funny

    Alpha Centauri, followed by Betelgeuse.

    --
    Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
  16. Re:"commercial UNIX" by Znork · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sure it does, 'Enterprise Solution' is an industrial grade solvent used for dissolving piles of money stuck to the floor of vaults. It's also available in 25ml bottles for removing embarrassingly large numbers on corporate bank account statements.

  17. Re:"commercial UNIX" by Joce640k · · Score: 3, Funny

    'Unix' machines need to start up with a cross shaped cursor, a horrible background color and two-color windows with a 3x3 grid of lines across them when resizing.

    X11 is a separate download/install on Mac so it's not a realman's Unix.

    --
    No sig today...
  18. Re:"commercial UNIX" by cptnapalm · · Score: 2, Funny
  19. My favorite Sun-related syllogism by alispguru · · Score: 3, Funny

    If

              The Computer is the Network

    and

              The Network is Down

    then

              It's Time to Take the Rest of the Day Off

    --

    To a Lisp hacker, XML is S-expressions in drag.
  20. Re:"commercial UNIX" by matelmaster · · Score: 5, Funny

    The difference being the market. One is a server market, the other is a cult.

    You mean a religion. A cult is a religion that just started out and has yet to garner success.

    Besides, Apple can claim to be a derivative of Christianity and/or Judaism, giving it instant credibility. One has the Book of Job, and I'm sure the other has the book of Jobs. And every other products is sold as the second coming.

    Sup Dawg! I heard you like quotes so we put a quote in your quote so you can quote while you quote!

    Ps: Please don't hit me!

  21. Re:"commercial UNIX" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Maybe he's not "would not understand"; maybe he's merely "think different".

    Or maybe he came from an accounting background, which uses blockquotes differently from the rest of us.

    Full already?

  22. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 4, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  23. Re:"commercial UNIX" by dna_(c)(tm)(r) · · Score: 2, Funny

    Maybe?

  24. Re:"commercial UNIX" by knghtrider · · Score: 2, Funny

    jestful comment on Most of the Mac Users I know need to get a job....LOL jestful comment off

    --
    In America today you can murder land for private profit. You can leave the corpse for all to see, and nobody calls the c
  25. Re:"commercial UNIX" by C4Cypher · · Score: 3, Funny

    If we angle this right, we might be able to troll 4chan into protesting outside Apple Stores all over the country.

  26. IBM About To Buy Sun for $7 Billion by Aceticon · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm willing to sell them the Moon for $1 Billion or Mars for $1.5 Billion

  27. nice headline by royler · · Score: 4, Funny

    i wonder how much the moon will go for... i hope apple doesnt buy it, i like their stuff, but i'm sick of their logo and you know they'd laser it on there.

  28. Re:"commercial UNIX" by kv9 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Apple sells smugness.

    I get my smugness for free. I run NetBSD.

  29. Re:"commercial UNIX" by Savage-Rabbit · · Score: 3, Funny

    Sure it does, 'Enterprise Solution' is an industrial grade solvent used for dissolving piles of money stuck to the floor of vaults. It's also available in 25ml bottles for removing embarrassingly large numbers on corporate bank account statements.

    It is? I thought a proper Enterprise Solution is what you get when you blend your IT infrastructure properly.

    --
    Only to idiots, are orders laws.
    -- Henning von Tresckow
  30. Re:"commercial UNIX" by certain+death · · Score: 2, Funny

    JEEZUS PEOPLE! STFU about Mac OS X already. It is very pretty and stable, but it is NOT a UNIX server. This started out about fucking IBM buying SUN, how about we get back to talking about that?!?

    --
    "My immediate reaction is "WTF? What kind of moron doesn't make things 64-bit safe to begin with?" Linus
  31. Love this quote by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    After the demise of SGI, one has to wonder about the future of traditional Unix.

    Sun is going the way of SGI because of traditional Unix!

  32. Re:Do Not Want by balbeir · · Score: 2, Funny
    IBM has a process that they apply to all companies they acquire.

    Internally it's known as "bluewashing" and it's not done until the acquired product runs on their mainframes and it's translated into swahili.