Now kidding, it's like they didn't do enough already to make people not to want to pay for legal music. People surely will only buy legal music for watermarked tracks with embedded advertising...
Actually, I like the idea. We could make a pay per preview system, where for very little money - or for free - one could listen to tracks (let's say in 128kbit), working similar to radio stations but not quite, it would be like a place for artists to advertise their new albums. Then, getting the albums would happen directly from the artists' sites. Of course, people would buy only what they like - hardcore fans are an exception, as always:) -, well, at least artists would work harder to produce higher quality albums.
Older bands would have a hard time though. I mean I still don't own every Deep Purple or Pink Floyd album, and still buy them from time to time, and I probably couldn't buy them through such a system.
the same machine offered with Windows, sold for a lower price without a preloaded copy of Windows.
Ok, let's think about this. Let's say MS sells Windows for these OEMs for laughingly low prices, because it's still worth it. Then, if the OEMs would start to sell machines without Windows, they just couldn't lower the price of the units with the price of Windows - as people know it - since then the price would be too low. They could lower with the price they pay for a Windows, but then it would turn out for how much they bought them. Remember, my mind is just going here, still, sometimes you can only wonder...
I'm not wealthy, but I definitely have very limited time, which makes the decision easy for me.
When ignorant people think everyone has been born with a Windows sticker on his/her face. For a while, it's funny. Then, it's irrelevant.
Thing is, many, maaany people can say the same thing about Windows. And they have their part of the truth too. Still, I am majorly fed up with opinions based on oh-everybody-knows-how-Windows-works-so-everything -else-is-a-timewaste attitude.
It seems fairly simple to me. They want to - lately, but still - respond to Adobe's lead regarding content spreading on the Internet, so they create Silverlight, now they want to use the community itself to help kill that lead off. I'd have no problem with that, them being a company and all, still, if they want Silverlight to be crossplatform - I mean _really_ want - then they should invest a few developers - they have plenty of - and really do release versions for other platforms, and do support them in the long term. But it doesn't seem they want to do either of them [release and support] so they try to drive the FOSS people to make the port and inject their IP in the FOSS world with their handwork. This way they won't have to deal with support - it's not their product after all - and they can still stop aiding them whenever they see fit.
The biggest problem MS has to face is loosing control over developers, development tools, and development platforms. You have no control without proper lockin, they saw that this can work and they probably wish to keep up with that. Thus, while I'm happy to see new shiny toys come into play, intentions and talks should always be taken with a rather large grain of salt.
Maybe something good will come out of this, but I hope it will be Adobe releasing new stuff to counterplay Silverlight, rather than Silverlight gaining too much ground in the FOSS world. Why prefer one ompany over the other ? Well, a record of past actions and behavior can help.
U.S. company, right, now explain me how would they do without their revenue that comes from over your borders.
Somewhat - maybe distant - similarity to Apple, see how much ipods they sell internationally, and in how few countries itunes is available. It's a wierd philosophy, since it's like hey, we've got enough customers, don't bother with the rest, even if they want to spend their money on us.
All in all, I don't care that this is only national now at Google, since you always got to start from somewhere. In time, they'll probably expand, if it's viable.
UMG says that it wants to watch how DRM-free music affects piracy rates.
Bollocks. I mean look up every "piracy" "statistics", they always talk about this and that much gazillions of good old bucks being lost because of piracy, yet no living human being has ever managed to give a reasonable and acceptable explanation about how those numbers make sense. Now they say they want to see how those numbers change if they sell non-drm-encumbered music ? Well, flip a coin, that'd make more sense to decide to continue or not. A better way would be to actually listen to what those pesky customers want.
availability of Ubuntu in Europe [...] consumers in the United Kingdom, France and Germany
Well, geography was not my favourite subject, still, I got fed up with similar moves. Reminds me of iTunes, like how it's available in Europe... right. People complain about globalization, hell, I'd really prefer it, if it would mean services would be global - or at least be available in Europe if they say it's available in Europe. Made me angry about on the same level when I happened to find some good stuff in an online store the other day, only to find out they only accept cards for payment if they were issued in the U.S. Well, keep your stuff and don't let me tell you where to put it to rest.
Whay would they demand it, they probably don't even know they could have it. Thing is, I've heard many stories about cell phones bought in the US having this and those capabilities locked/unavailable, sometimes even without the possibility to get it - legally, I mean - unlocked. I've never met that kind of behavior in Europe, and I wouldn't tolerate it. Also, I just checked yesterday, most cell phone subscriptions in the US have fees that are more than the double of what I pay here overseas. Add to that the strange - to many of us - philosophy of having to also pay for received messages and for received calls, and the whole concept seems like a nightmare, really.
It can hardly be called a Linux clone if it uses a different kernel.
Well, a kernel is a kernel... thing is, the new Solaris won't be widely adopted - outside the world it's adopted now, that is - until it gets drivers, drivers, drivers. Now, what's the easiest way ? I'd guess it'd be using Linux drivers. Then, you use the gnu toolchain, a package management system which probably will be somewhat dpkg/apt-like (not that I'd object) and what you'll end up with will hopefully be a Linux-like and somewhat Solaris-like distribution, hopefully with everything that's good in Solaris and everything that's good in a Linux-based distro. I mean that's the optimistic version. I very much hope they don't just try to make a Linux distro-mimicking Solaris distro and try to "steal" users. The only way I'd forgive that would be if they'd create a truly superior distro, which would use the same licenses as Linux-based distros do. That would do good not just for them - since this is their main concern, they being a company, you see - but for FOSS and Linux users too.
It really is not logical to look at things that way though. You can make a case against any large organizations ethics.
I think your point is just plain wrong. I say we can and should have opinions about companies' behavior in the market, against each other, related to customers and in general, and I say we shall freely rely on those opinions when judging a company's certain new moves, be them either technology-related or else. My take is that past actions could and should have their consequences in the judgment [by the public] of the company's future moves. No comapny should let to do as they see fit, even if laws and lobbies and money can make every move to be taken as legitimate.
Regarding the current issue: of course MS wants their own version of bittorent-like technology: they want control, and they can't have control over bt, thus they do as they always do, create their own, proclaim it as being revolutionary, gather users, and take over the competition by sheer numbers.
No way I'm going to board a plane that only relies on GPS. GPS does only work if the satellites work, you know. And satellites are far less reliable than radars. I don't want to trust my life on the optimistic hope that solar flars won't be at peak when I'm traveling, or that thw GPS will update itself for 20 seconds just when we're approaching an airport in fog at night you know. Additionally, which is harder: disrupting radar systems, or shooting down a few satellites ? Oh, one more: which is harder: sending a few people to fix a broken radar in a few hours, or sending people up to fix a satellite in six months ? Oh, wait, wait, there's more: how many satellites would we need to cover reliably the whole planet before they can switch totally to GPS, while the radar-based system just works ? Ok, I'll leave the rest to you fellas.
It's not totally crapware free. From the Specs: Norton Internet Security(TM) 2007 (90-day subscription included)
They could have chosen a free AV package, like they chose a free office suite
Even more, with the Norton stuff installed that 1.5ghz via cpu will feel like a 800mhz one and with constant hdd scratching it will feel like it swaps all the time. There are dozens of - even free - av sw that are at least as good and need much less resources - which is point to consider given there's only 1gb of memory and vista on it. I just made a 750mhz duron machine usable again last week by replacing that norton 2k7 stuff, they just wondered how could that be...
Remember the 1980s worries about how the "forking" of Unix could hurt that operating system's chances for adoption?
Yes, I remember. All of us can see now how "forking" hurt Linux's adoption. Not. Besides, wouldn't hurt to try figuring out what the difference between forks and distros are before next time.
I still call BS on the whole issue. Thing is, company A sells product X to customer B. Meaning, that company A has received the price it desired for their product X. Then, B sells product X to sixpack fellow C for a price they agree on. B receives this money and is happy with it, also C is happy with it since got the product for a lower price. But, that should be no concern for company A, since they already got their money from customer B, who bought the stuff from them in the first place. This whole issue is pretty much laughable and everyone should instantly dismiss every and each lawsuit and takedown notice related to such issues. And stop buying from company A, since they clearly have some real morons working for them, why should you make them richer and more powerful if ?
...projects, phd students, researchers, most of them meet almost all of the criteria mentioned in the article. Let's see.
Unexplained affluence
Maybe a valid point, but I fail to see how this is the FBI's concern, tax dept. might be interested though.
failing to report overseas travel
Hmm. So, they need you to report where you travel ? Nice. I remember times in my country when you had to do this, and then they didn't allow you to travel even if you reported that you wanted to go. Moreover, you reporting your traveling wishes made you a suspect of... well, anything you can think of.
showing unusual interest in information outside the job scope
Which is something I and my coworkers almost constantly do. As researchers and scientists - however funny that might sound to some people - I'd even expect my colleagues to do so.
keeping unusual work hours
Now come on:)) What is unusual ? Working late ? Sometimes coming in late ? Sometimes working during the weekend ? At night ? Then we're all doomed:)
unreported contacts with foreign nationals
Now that's something I like. I mean I shouldn't talk with my foreign acquaintances anymore ? I shouldn't get new ones ? Or I could but report them beforehand ? Rrright.
unreported contact with foreign government, military, or intelligence officials
I might agree with this to some extent, but it is still too vaguely formulated to be trusted. The problem is, you can't trust these people that they won't use this vagueness in the formulation to turn everyone they'd like into a suspect.
attempting to gain new accesses without the need to know
With this I also have one problem: we're not the military here. Need-to-know is not that black and white in the real world as in the service. And not that black and white like they thought it to be during the cold war. Something that at times might be considered a security measure, might be just a full blown social hindrance later on.
unexplained absences
I can't even remember how many university classes I have skipped. 'Cause of work, of laziness, or 'cause I just didn't like them. Yet I managed to get two masters and a phd and I'm working, I'm paying my taxes and I consider myself a patriot. Bzzt, wrong, you missed your classes, spy scum !
This is the right idea in my book. Combine this with I've written above. The root problem is that our idea about "serious" crimes is not the same as theirs. They only care about their money, and we care about our safety. The latter doesn't really matter when they see those gazillion dollar signs floating around.
A normal and sane anti-crime force would fight against those crimes which cause more damage to people's lives, everyday routines, people's safety and general trust in the outside world, like not being afraid to go out in the streets and let your children go out, not being afraid to leave home for a few hours just to find it broken in and everything taken, and so on. However "minuscule" the monetary value of the offenses mentioned in the article might be compared to "piracy" stealing issues, they are enormously more important. If these people can't or don't want to see this, they should be kicked out from their offices, and kicked out hard.
Fear and ignorance are the real enemy. First, you have fear from someone, so you start taking measures, hard ones, but you can explain them with the fear you have. Than, you go on, realize that these measures are good for you, make your life easier, so make a few steps further, and after a while you're not even surprised that you still can blame all on the "enemy" you feared before and nobody really protests. Then, after a longer while, you just don't even have to blame it on anyone, just keep on doing what you wish and the people will just swallow everything. Why shouldn't they, it's in _their_ best interest, as they became to believe. After making some regulation that have bad effects even on outsiders and foreigners, you can all justify them by saying hey, it's all for your best interest and it's just foreigners that get hassled, you won't. When foreigners start disliking you, that's even great, since you'll be able to say hey, I'll told you they dislike us and we have to protect you people. And the circle just goes on. This is a nice game actually, it's just not so entertaining when it's being played on our doorsteps.
For god's sake, why on earth is a tv set a gadget ? Or a mobile phone ? And you're a nerd if you say so ? Geez, guys, you just have a hell lot more free time to spend carelessly than we other poor humans do.
Why is Linux surprised that a commercial company might be holding back on open sourcing a large amount of its intellectual property? Thats what they make money out of.
Well, first, read the damn thing. Second, it's not about what a company usually does. The interesting part is in the differences of what's being said and what's being done, between the words and the intentions. In a company-company relationship this is common practice. In a company-communities relationship it's fallacy.
It's working together, not working against each other. The F/OSS community is HUGE, but wasting resources is always silly. As Schwartz put it: "Let's stop wasting time recreating wheels we both need to roll forward."
Very nice attitude.
I don't think so. JS has just one goal: get Sun one more step further, and then one more step, and one more. Of course he says what he says, he's trying to stick to the image of a goodwill fairy of the FOSS world who only wants good for them. Uhm, sure. Like, hey, let's not think about anything, everybody just come develop our Solaris for a change, we love you, we love FOSS, we love Linux, we are buddies, right ? Why the hell would they - or any company for whom Linux and FOSS is a competitor that's so freaking hard to grasp and compete with - want FOSS to rule ? Especially since they try so really hard to push their own OS. The most probable intent is to go side by side like "good old friends" while they can benefit from FOSS and Linux communities. Not longer.
Funny thing is, I don't dislike Sun or JS, I like their stuff, their gear and their software. I just don't like the new attitude.
They don't firmly commit to anything, but merely spend a certain amount of time chasing whichever particular ambulance they think is hot with their customer base at a given moment. When the wind changes, they go off in a different direction.
You could've just said that much shorter: Sun is a company.
Slashdot Mirror
inserting advertisements into audio tracks
Now kidding, it's like they didn't do enough already to make people not to want to pay for legal music. People surely will only buy legal music for watermarked tracks with embedded advertising...
Actually, I like the idea. We could make a pay per preview system, where for very little money - or for free - one could listen to tracks (let's say in 128kbit), working similar to radio stations but not quite, it would be like a place for artists to advertise their new albums. Then, getting the albums would happen directly from the artists' sites. Of course, people would buy only what they like - hardcore fans are an exception, as always :) -, well, at least artists would work harder to produce higher quality albums.
Older bands would have a hard time though. I mean I still don't own every Deep Purple or Pink Floyd album, and still buy them from time to time, and I probably couldn't buy them through such a system.
except RIAA forgot to inform the Court of its intentions
It all would sound ok, if the above quote didn't happen. I mean come on, forget to inform the court ? Geez.
the same machine offered with Windows, sold for a lower price without a preloaded copy of Windows.
Ok, let's think about this. Let's say MS sells Windows for these OEMs for laughingly low prices, because it's still worth it. Then, if the OEMs would start to sell machines without Windows, they just couldn't lower the price of the units with the price of Windows - as people know it - since then the price would be too low. They could lower with the price they pay for a Windows, but then it would turn out for how much they bought them. Remember, my mind is just going here, still, sometimes you can only wonder...
I'm not wealthy, but I definitely have very limited time, which makes the decision easy for me.
g -else-is-a-timewaste attitude.
When ignorant people think everyone has been born with a Windows sticker on his/her face. For a while, it's funny. Then, it's irrelevant.
Thing is, many, maaany people can say the same thing about Windows. And they have their part of the truth too. Still, I am majorly fed up with opinions based on oh-everybody-knows-how-Windows-works-so-everythin
It seems fairly simple to me. They want to - lately, but still - respond to Adobe's lead regarding content spreading on the Internet, so they create Silverlight, now they want to use the community itself to help kill that lead off. I'd have no problem with that, them being a company and all, still, if they want Silverlight to be crossplatform - I mean _really_ want - then they should invest a few developers - they have plenty of - and really do release versions for other platforms, and do support them in the long term. But it doesn't seem they want to do either of them [release and support] so they try to drive the FOSS people to make the port and inject their IP in the FOSS world with their handwork. This way they won't have to deal with support - it's not their product after all - and they can still stop aiding them whenever they see fit.
The biggest problem MS has to face is loosing control over developers, development tools, and development platforms. You have no control without proper lockin, they saw that this can work and they probably wish to keep up with that. Thus, while I'm happy to see new shiny toys come into play, intentions and talks should always be taken with a rather large grain of salt.
Maybe something good will come out of this, but I hope it will be Adobe releasing new stuff to counterplay Silverlight, rather than Silverlight gaining too much ground in the FOSS world. Why prefer one ompany over the other ? Well, a record of past actions and behavior can help.
U.S. company, right, now explain me how would they do without their revenue that comes from over your borders.
Somewhat - maybe distant - similarity to Apple, see how much ipods they sell internationally, and in how few countries itunes is available. It's a wierd philosophy, since it's like hey, we've got enough customers, don't bother with the rest, even if they want to spend their money on us.
All in all, I don't care that this is only national now at Google, since you always got to start from somewhere. In time, they'll probably expand, if it's viable.
UMG says that it wants to watch how DRM-free music affects piracy rates.
Bollocks. I mean look up every "piracy" "statistics", they always talk about this and that much gazillions of good old bucks being lost because of piracy, yet no living human being has ever managed to give a reasonable and acceptable explanation about how those numbers make sense. Now they say they want to see how those numbers change if they sell non-drm-encumbered music ? Well, flip a coin, that'd make more sense to decide to continue or not. A better way would be to actually listen to what those pesky customers want.
availability of Ubuntu in Europe [...] consumers in the United Kingdom, France and Germany
Well, geography was not my favourite subject, still, I got fed up with similar moves. Reminds me of iTunes, like how it's available in Europe... right. People complain about globalization, hell, I'd really prefer it, if it would mean services would be global - or at least be available in Europe if they say it's available in Europe. Made me angry about on the same level when I happened to find some good stuff in an online store the other day, only to find out they only accept cards for payment if they were issued in the U.S. Well, keep your stuff and don't let me tell you where to put it to rest.
Whay would they demand it, they probably don't even know they could have it. Thing is, I've heard many stories about cell phones bought in the US having this and those capabilities locked/unavailable, sometimes even without the possibility to get it - legally, I mean - unlocked. I've never met that kind of behavior in Europe, and I wouldn't tolerate it. Also, I just checked yesterday, most cell phone subscriptions in the US have fees that are more than the double of what I pay here overseas. Add to that the strange - to many of us - philosophy of having to also pay for received messages and for received calls, and the whole concept seems like a nightmare, really.
It can hardly be called a Linux clone if it uses a different kernel.
Well, a kernel is a kernel... thing is, the new Solaris won't be widely adopted - outside the world it's adopted now, that is - until it gets drivers, drivers, drivers. Now, what's the easiest way ? I'd guess it'd be using Linux drivers. Then, you use the gnu toolchain, a package management system which probably will be somewhat dpkg/apt-like (not that I'd object) and what you'll end up with will hopefully be a Linux-like and somewhat Solaris-like distribution, hopefully with everything that's good in Solaris and everything that's good in a Linux-based distro. I mean that's the optimistic version. I very much hope they don't just try to make a Linux distro-mimicking Solaris distro and try to "steal" users. The only way I'd forgive that would be if they'd create a truly superior distro, which would use the same licenses as Linux-based distros do. That would do good not just for them - since this is their main concern, they being a company, you see - but for FOSS and Linux users too.
It really is not logical to look at things that way though. You can make a case against any large organizations ethics.
I think your point is just plain wrong. I say we can and should have opinions about companies' behavior in the market, against each other, related to customers and in general, and I say we shall freely rely on those opinions when judging a company's certain new moves, be them either technology-related or else. My take is that past actions could and should have their consequences in the judgment [by the public] of the company's future moves. No comapny should let to do as they see fit, even if laws and lobbies and money can make every move to be taken as legitimate.
Regarding the current issue: of course MS wants their own version of bittorent-like technology: they want control, and they can't have control over bt, thus they do as they always do, create their own, proclaim it as being revolutionary, gather users, and take over the competition by sheer numbers.
No way I'm going to board a plane that only relies on GPS. GPS does only work if the satellites work, you know. And satellites are far less reliable than radars. I don't want to trust my life on the optimistic hope that solar flars won't be at peak when I'm traveling, or that thw GPS will update itself for 20 seconds just when we're approaching an airport in fog at night you know. Additionally, which is harder: disrupting radar systems, or shooting down a few satellites ? Oh, one more: which is harder: sending a few people to fix a broken radar in a few hours, or sending people up to fix a satellite in six months ? Oh, wait, wait, there's more: how many satellites would we need to cover reliably the whole planet before they can switch totally to GPS, while the radar-based system just works ? Ok, I'll leave the rest to you fellas.
It's not totally crapware free. From the Specs: Norton Internet Security(TM) 2007 (90-day subscription included)
They could have chosen a free AV package, like they chose a free office suite
Even more, with the Norton stuff installed that 1.5ghz via cpu will feel like a 800mhz one and with constant hdd scratching it will feel like it swaps all the time. There are dozens of - even free - av sw that are at least as good and need much less resources - which is point to consider given there's only 1gb of memory and vista on it. I just made a 750mhz duron machine usable again last week by replacing that norton 2k7 stuff, they just wondered how could that be...
Remember the 1980s worries about how the "forking" of Unix could hurt that operating system's chances for adoption?
Yes, I remember. All of us can see now how "forking" hurt Linux's adoption. Not. Besides, wouldn't hurt to try figuring out what the difference between forks and distros are before next time.
to undercut someone's prices
I still call BS on the whole issue. Thing is, company A sells product X to customer B. Meaning, that company A has received the price it desired for their product X. Then, B sells product X to sixpack fellow C for a price they agree on. B receives this money and is happy with it, also C is happy with it since got the product for a lower price. But, that should be no concern for company A, since they already got their money from customer B, who bought the stuff from them in the first place. This whole issue is pretty much laughable and everyone should instantly dismiss every and each lawsuit and takedown notice related to such issues. And stop buying from company A, since they clearly have some real morons working for them, why should you make them richer and more powerful if ?
...projects, phd students, researchers, most of them meet almost all of the criteria mentioned in the article. Let's see.
... well, anything you can think of.
:)) What is unusual ? Working late ? Sometimes coming in late ? Sometimes working during the weekend ? At night ? Then we're all doomed :)
Unexplained affluence
Maybe a valid point, but I fail to see how this is the FBI's concern, tax dept. might be interested though.
failing to report overseas travel
Hmm. So, they need you to report where you travel ? Nice. I remember times in my country when you had to do this, and then they didn't allow you to travel even if you reported that you wanted to go. Moreover, you reporting your traveling wishes made you a suspect of
showing unusual interest in information outside the job scope
Which is something I and my coworkers almost constantly do. As researchers and scientists - however funny that might sound to some people - I'd even expect my colleagues to do so.
keeping unusual work hours
Now come on
unreported contacts with foreign nationals
Now that's something I like. I mean I shouldn't talk with my foreign acquaintances anymore ? I shouldn't get new ones ? Or I could but report them beforehand ? Rrright.
unreported contact with foreign government, military, or intelligence officials
I might agree with this to some extent, but it is still too vaguely formulated to be trusted. The problem is, you can't trust these people that they won't use this vagueness in the formulation to turn everyone they'd like into a suspect.
attempting to gain new accesses without the need to know
With this I also have one problem: we're not the military here. Need-to-know is not that black and white in the real world as in the service. And not that black and white like they thought it to be during the cold war. Something that at times might be considered a security measure, might be just a full blown social hindrance later on.
unexplained absences
I can't even remember how many university classes I have skipped. 'Cause of work, of laziness, or 'cause I just didn't like them. Yet I managed to get two masters and a phd and I'm working, I'm paying my taxes and I consider myself a patriot. Bzzt, wrong, you missed your classes, spy scum !
there should be a punishment fitting the crime
This is the right idea in my book. Combine this with I've written above. The root problem is that our idea about "serious" crimes is not the same as theirs. They only care about their money, and we care about our safety. The latter doesn't really matter when they see those gazillion dollar signs floating around.
A normal and sane anti-crime force would fight against those crimes which cause more damage to people's lives, everyday routines, people's safety and general trust in the outside world, like not being afraid to go out in the streets and let your children go out, not being afraid to leave home for a few hours just to find it broken in and everything taken, and so on. However "minuscule" the monetary value of the offenses mentioned in the article might be compared to "piracy" stealing issues, they are enormously more important. If these people can't or don't want to see this, they should be kicked out from their offices, and kicked out hard.
Fear and ignorance are the real enemy. First, you have fear from someone, so you start taking measures, hard ones, but you can explain them with the fear you have. Than, you go on, realize that these measures are good for you, make your life easier, so make a few steps further, and after a while you're not even surprised that you still can blame all on the "enemy" you feared before and nobody really protests. Then, after a longer while, you just don't even have to blame it on anyone, just keep on doing what you wish and the people will just swallow everything. Why shouldn't they, it's in _their_ best interest, as they became to believe. After making some regulation that have bad effects even on outsiders and foreigners, you can all justify them by saying hey, it's all for your best interest and it's just foreigners that get hassled, you won't. When foreigners start disliking you, that's even great, since you'll be able to say hey, I'll told you they dislike us and we have to protect you people. And the circle just goes on. This is a nice game actually, it's just not so entertaining when it's being played on our doorsteps.
For god's sake, why on earth is a tv set a gadget ? Or a mobile phone ? And you're a nerd if you say so ? Geez, guys, you just have a hell lot more free time to spend carelessly than we other poor humans do.
Geez, I hope you'll only analyze calves from now on.
Why is Linux surprised that a commercial company might be holding back on open sourcing a large amount of its intellectual property? Thats what they make money out of.
Well, first, read the damn thing. Second, it's not about what a company usually does. The interesting part is in the differences of what's being said and what's being done, between the words and the intentions. In a company-company relationship this is common practice. In a company-communities relationship it's fallacy.
It's working together, not working against each other. The F/OSS community is HUGE, but wasting resources is always silly. As Schwartz put it: "Let's stop wasting time recreating wheels we both need to roll forward." Very nice attitude.
I don't think so. JS has just one goal: get Sun one more step further, and then one more step, and one more. Of course he says what he says, he's trying to stick to the image of a goodwill fairy of the FOSS world who only wants good for them. Uhm, sure. Like, hey, let's not think about anything, everybody just come develop our Solaris for a change, we love you, we love FOSS, we love Linux, we are buddies, right ? Why the hell would they - or any company for whom Linux and FOSS is a competitor that's so freaking hard to grasp and compete with - want FOSS to rule ? Especially since they try so really hard to push their own OS. The most probable intent is to go side by side like "good old friends" while they can benefit from FOSS and Linux communities. Not longer.
Funny thing is, I don't dislike Sun or JS, I like their stuff, their gear and their software. I just don't like the new attitude.
They don't firmly commit to anything, but merely spend a certain amount of time chasing whichever particular ambulance they think is hot with their customer base at a given moment. When the wind changes, they go off in a different direction.
You could've just said that much shorter: Sun is a company.