My newest Inside Track discusses the scenario for this to unfold. It’s quite rare that an entire INSIDE TRACK is devoted to one issue. The column emerged from a real-time press conference held by Sun in Shanghai where I had a couple of questions for McNeally but was bumped from ever getting to make these queries about the future of Star Office. I found it quite offensive to be invited to one of these things then never allowed to ask a simple question. In fact McNeally was hogging the mic most of the time, as usual. He kept saying he was going to introduce someone and then he instead rambled on about this and that. His alloted time never ended. When it did end one or two inane questions were asked by the press and that was the end of it. The way they side-stepped and downplayed the Fujitsu stuff indicated to me that something other than dumping Star Office was in the works. This was more than confirmed when it turned out that a new future line of products is being developed by Fujitsu for Sun.
Knowing this guy I can assure you there is something fishy about this Microsoft deal. He is preoccupied with a deep personal dislike of Bill Gates to the point of obsession and this whole thing makes no sense. Whether my hypothesis (that Fujitsu is buying Sun) works out remains to be seen, but it is the most logical outcome of things to come.
Well, as I’ve said on groklaw: The SUN has set! Every time I hear Mr Schwartz talk, it’s always about how bad Linux is, for whatever reason. Sun has gone from being a lukewarm OSS supporter to a full blown M$ schill. I’m convinced of that. Exactly why is still not clear. There may be something major going on behind the scenes that time will us about.
I myself haven’t seen a real future for Sun for at least the last 5 years. Intel/AMD chips are performing like Sparc, Linux is better than Solaris (always has been too). Aside from StarOffice, what’s left? Couple that with the recent slamming of OSS (Linux in particular) and it gets easy to see where Sun has hedged it’s bets.
Sorry, John, claiming “StarOffice does not fit in with anything else Sun does” is patently absurd. Without a competent office suite as an alternative to Microsoft Office three would be zero possibility of gaining a foothold in the desktop market. StarOffice (together with Mozilla) provides both Solaris and Linux a toehold in providing an alternative desktop. Whether that desktop is an x86 system running Sun’s or someone else’s Linux distribution, or whether it’s a SunRay or other thin client running with a heavy iron server, Sun has product to sell. Every time a customer installs something other than Windows Sun has a better chance of selling hardware, software, or Java to that customer.
Claims of a grand alliance between Sun and Microsoft are simply delusional fantasies on the part of those who see conspiracies everywhere. Given Time Warner’s $1B settlement coupled with the preliminary EU decision it’s easy to justify a $2B payment just to make the suit go away as well as provide some legitimacy to MS’ claims that their competitors are licensing Windows API’s. Linux is an important part of Sun’s overall strategy, but Solaris remains a key asset, especially should SCO have any success at blunting Linux adoption via legal means, or if Red Hat and others end up fragmenting Linux beyond a workable point.
Try to remove your blinders long enough to see that McNealy is a survivor and has remade his company several times through its history. You are likely witnessing another of these transitions.