| Solaris is a better Linux than Linux?? |
Mar. 02, 2006
Really? Gosh, and all this time, I've been using Linux. I'll have to switch over Right Now.
OK, so maybe Sun doesn't think that their latest anti-Linux Web campaign will do that, but I do find Sun's constant spinning on Linux to be tiring. Very, very tiring.
It's getting to the point where I could use Sun's Linux PR stance as a fan come this summer.
Over at InfoWorld, Dave Rosenberg blogged, "Just a year ago Sun was basically against Linux -- I would even say that the perception was that Sun was an enemy of Linux. Now they cite statistics of new servers running Linux."
Until the "Solaris is a better Linux than Linux" campaign came along, anyway.
Well, Rosenberg is right, but Sun's been of two minds about Linux for a long, long time. Remember when Sun was saying that Red Hat Linux was a proprietary operating system in 2004? Or, in 2003 when Sun president Jonathan Schwartz said, in regards to giving Linux users indemnification from any backlash from SCO's war against Linux, "If you use Linux on the server, even if we sold the distribution to you, you are on your own."
And, long before Sun had a love affair with AMD Opteron, Sun paid a cool $2 billion in 2000 for Linux-based appliance vendor Cobalt Networks. Three years later Sun pulled the plug on the last of the Cobalt line. Ironically, Cobalt servers continue to stagger on in Web hosting companies and as the Blue Quartz open-source project.
Last, but never least, how could anyone ever forget Sun CEO Scott McNealy dressing up like Tux and proclaiming that "We love Linux."
Oh the humanity!
So, in short, there's nothing new here with Sun flip-flopping on Linux.
And, I'm sick of it.
I really thought Sun was finally getting its act together with open-source. And, well maybe they are there, but Linux... sigh.
Tom Adelstein, in his LXer column spells out all the reasons why Sun's constant Linux spin does the company no good, so I won't bother to repeat it here.
I've been down this road before. So, rather than rehash how foolish I think Sun has been in doing this, or why it is that I think Sun keeps doing it, let me just make a recommendation for Sun's consideration.
Pick a market position for Solaris and Linux and Stick To It.
May I suggest three slogans? - "Solaris, the high-end operating system for low-end servers"
- "Solaris on SPARC, when nothing but the best will do"
- "Linux on Sun, the affordable, reliable server alternative"
There you go, put all your wood behind those three arrows, and you'll be fine.
I know the traditional Sun slogan has been, "All the wood behind one arrow," but let's face it guys, that hasn't been happening for a long time.
Don't like my ideas? Fine, find some others. Just nail 'em down and stick to them, and you'll never have to read another column from me again moaning about this stuff.
Deal?
-- Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
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