srw

Sun Microsystems: Burnout or Takeover Target?

Sun is a bad doer in the software arena.
Java is currently successful not because Sun, it's because the Apache foundation, BEA software, IBM and a lot of contribution from the open source community and companies. There is not vendor lock-in here, there are many Java implementations and now Sun will open source their own. So Java is currently more a specification than a vendor owned product, IMHO Sun is currently irrelevant to the Java business. It's important to remember that Sun promoted Java in the client side, that there were thin-clients to run Java applications, but finally Java won the space in the server side.

Let's look at other hot software areas where Sun has failed:

- JavaFX: While Microsoft came finally with Silverlight to fight Adobe/Macromedia Flash/Flex business, Sun lost a precious opportunity with JavaFX, anybody plan to use JavaFX right now? I don't think so. If somebody wants some objetive data, While JavaFX has not delivered anything yet to really compete with Adobe or Microsoft, the open source innitiative Mono has implemented an early verion of Moonlight/Siliverlight as open source in 21 days: tirania.org/blog/archi...

- OpenSolaris: How many companies are using OpenSolaris? Why you'll choose OpenSolaris instead of Linux/FreeBSD/others?

- OpenOffice: While the product is very good, it's not clear how this free product benefits Sun. IBM has been promoting free platforms like eclipse but they have seen it as part of an ecosystem with commecial solutions like WebSphere, Notes and others.

So, I don't think you can trust Sun in the software business arena.