SCO fizzles

[burns]

On Sun, 2003-08-24 at 19:27, Net Llama! wrote:

> Sun is between a rock and a hard place right now, as they despise M$, yet 
> fear Linux.  They're not sure whether they want to fight a two fronted war 
> at the moment, so they're riding the fence.

I work a lot with Sun (but these opinions are mine). They have sat on
the fence for years... even when they released Star Office for Linux,
they still refused to commit in broader terms to supporting the Linux
environment. Behind the scenes Sun developers were contributing to Linux
with the tacit approval of Sun managers.

Sun views their niche to be a very large share of the mid-high end
Enterprise market. This is not an area where Linux has been a strong
threat. Sun would just as soon ignore Linux, or at best only dabble in
it for amusement. However, there has been enough requests from clients
that they can no longer ignore Linux and they are starting to come
around. 

Sun is now offering Linux systems. Sun is also allying with Linux and
incorporating Linux elements in its forthcoming Sun business/corporate
desktop - the one that Sun hopes will squeeze market share from
Microsoft W2k and XP. From sun.com:
" Project Mad Hatter's interface is designed to be familiar to business
desktop application users, which helps reduce training costs. The
desktop also includes some features unique to Linux such as the
Workspace Switcher in the lower right-hand corner that enables users to
set up four different work spaces." (Does this look familiar?
http://www.sun.com/2003-0805/feature/images/defaultevolution_scrnshot_081803.jpg)

OTOH, Sun absolutely despises Microsoft... and that extends right up to
their CEO, Scott McNealy. I suspect Sun sees Linux as an emerging
low-cost complementary alternative that they need to get a piece of.
They see Microsoft, however, as a direct predatory threat to Sun's
existence.
-- 
burns