Sun Microsystems' Next Linux Move

When Sun Microsystems (JAVA) acquired MySQL for $1 billion, it instantly gave Sun credibility in the open source market. But Sun isn't stopping there.

In recent weeks, Sun has quietly increased its bets on the fastest growing version of Linux in the market. And it isn't from Red Hat or Novell.

Rather, Sun is preparing to certify more of its servers for Canonical's Ubuntu Linux. The effort includes Sun's latest small and midsize business servers. In an interview with Reuters on April 2, Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth reinforced the growing relations between Sun and Ubuntu.

The timing couldn’t be better for Sun. Canonical is scheduled to ship the latest Ubuntu release — Hardy Heron — in late April. (Here's an early review of Hardy Heron.) It’s expected to include several major server enhancements.

Great. But Sun isn't stopping there. The hardware giant also plans to sponsor Ubuntu Live, a conference for Ubuntu users scheduled for this summer.

At that event, watch for Sun to potentially describe how its core open source assets -- the MySQL database and OpenOffice desktop productivity suite -- will evolve with Ubuntu.

Profits from open source may not be immediate. But Sun's open source assets -- and growing Ubuntu Linux efforts -- have finally put the company back on the agenda with software developers and corporate customers.

Disclosure: none

Comments

[dwlegg:]

Presumably this means that OpenSolaris is dead?

2008 Apr 03 01:09 PM

[myxiplx:]

OpenSolaris dead? Not likely, have you seen the amount of development work Sun are putting into it right now? ZFS is looking very good, they've just created a CIFS server, native support for Kerberos is improving in leaps & bounds, DTrace is phenomenal, and they're just the things I've been looking into recently.

I applaud Sun for supporting Ubuntu, but I think there will be room for both Ubuntu and Solaris for some time yet.

2008 Apr 03 01:40 PM

[ron k jeffries:]

Sun supporting Ubuntu at some level is major news. What's confusing to me is how Sun's own OpenSolaris plays out. The real nes I guess is this is one of the first announcements that focus on Ubuntu as a server rather than desktop OS.

May 1,000 Ubuntu flowers bloom.

2008 Apr 03 01:41 PM

[sniper6:]

Hooray for Sun's support of Ubuntu. I hope it works. Sun's performance lately has sucked big time, starting with that retarded reverse stock split a few months ago. Sun pisses me off. The so-called "experts" who engineered that particular brainchild didn't realize that Sun was mainly popular with home-gamers, like me, who could only afford to buy a stock that was under $10 to end up owning more than a few shares, and now that it isn't anymore (for the time being!!!) nobody wants to buy it at all. The logic was faulty. People who want, and have the capital, to buy high priced stocks are doing so elsewhere (Berkshire Hathaway, anyone??). The stock should have been split 2 for 1, not 1 for 4. Jerkoffs!

2008 Apr 03 03:44 PM

[User 173065:]

I agree with the notion that Ubuntu and Solaris can co-exist. They are very different, but could both share important components.
Sure it is disappointing to see the stock where it is, but I'm glad to see that they are more interested in taking care of the product -- not the stock price. I think Sun will come around again in both, but that is some time in the future. Give them about 5 years.

2008 Apr 04 12:53 PM

[User 173104:]

to sniper6:
stock splits/reverse stock splits have about 0% effect on the company value. too many amateurs like yourself go around thinking that a "cheap" stock price would make everyone jump on the wagon.

"like me, who could only afford to buy a stock that was under $10", so you only got $10 ++ to spend per share? this silly argumentation is wrong, what ever you hare spending in total $, will give you the same part of the company no matter how many stocks that will get you.

2008 Apr 04 02:17 PM

[Sudheer:]

Good for sun, good for the foss community.

Regards,
Sudheer - sudheer.net
Binary Vibes - binaryvibes.co.in

2008 Apr 04 02:20 PM

[User 173574:]

Combining the best of both worlds; Ubuntu and Sun MicroSystems MySQL, that should rock the world of computing. I would see a lot of Windows users tempted to go for the switch.

2008 Apr 06 03:09 AM

[sniper6:]

User- your point is taken about the amount of total money spent. Of course you are correct about that. However, in order for a small investor to DIVERSIFY there must be decent quality stocks available that do not require large amounts of capital to purchase. Or, I suppose the small guy could just purchase a mutual fund (yawn). You are also correct that splits, etc., have little effect on company value. Thanks for stating the obvious. To assert that a cheap stock price would not attract interest is something I must disagree with. Certainly speculators would be attracted, which generates activity in its own right, and money will always go where the action is. We can't all be stock market experts, so, quit putting down "amateurs", since we are the spine of the economy, and without whom so-called "professionals" would be jobless. Cheer up, because as long as there are losers like me, you can continue making enormous profits on the market. If your boss at McDonalds can find someone else to run the fryolator.

2008 Apr 07 10:27 AM

[LZ:]

This is surprising (to me at least). Ubuntu as a server? Solaris is a much more rock-solid server OS than Ubuntu, and there are probably other Linux distros that are more server-oriented they could have picked than Ubuntu. Sounds to me like they're just chasing what's hot right now, nevermind that it's really only hot in the desktop market...

2008 Apr 08 12:59 PM

[masher:]

Sniper6,

You can always join some kind of DRIP program (such as sharebuilder.com) and purchase fractional shares anyway, so your argument is rather moot when it comes to buying stocks.

If you knew anything about Sun's history -- it is obvious that you do not -- you would know their stock was seriously over-diluted with splits during the bubble years. A consolidation was long overdue. Furthermore, a stock price of below $10 was preventing large institutions from adding Sun to their portfolios, as many funds have a policy that prevents them from investing in stocks trading within a stone's throw of $0 per share. An arbitrary rule, to be sure, but a damaging one.

I'm sure you can understand how a company with approximately 3,534,000,000 cares very much whether large institutions are being prevented from purchasing a million shares or two, by something as silly as a stock price (which has been pointed out correctly, is simply window dressing).

2008 Apr 10 12:24 PM

[masher:]

Should be: "approximately 3,534,000,000 outstanding shares ... "

2008 Apr 10 12:26 PM

[HanginOn:]

That would be nice. In the past, when pressured for market share, Sun would go into their "research vault" and drop a mini-bombshell on the market, thus shaking up the competition and regaining market share. This appears to have waned (or there is no more "research vault" to access). Impact of MySQL, as with others Sun ventures with or toward, still appears not to drive Sun stock upward.


On Apr 06 03:09 AM User 173574 wrote:

> Combining the best of both worlds; Ubuntu and Sun MicroSystems MySQL,
> that should rock the world of computing. I would see a lot of Windows
> users tempted to go for the switch.

2008 Apr 27 10:06 PM