Stephen O’Grady: “While I’m sure the tactical arguments against continued investments in the JDS Linux platform are easy to make, they probably were too for the folks that shelved Solaris x86 several years back, a decision that Sun still laments.”
I’m with Stephen here. Tactically, it makes a lot of sense for Sun to distance themselves from the enterprise desktop space, given their focus on network infrastructure; and from Linux, given their reemphasis on Solaris/OpenSolaris as the platform of choice at the OS layer of the software stack. Furthermore, where Sun has historically had a desktop story, it’s been centered around developer workstations and thin clients, so retargeting JDS as a solution for these areas makes a lot of sense to me.
Strategically, though, I’ve got this nagging feeling Sun is about to commit another royal blunder, akin to the failure to capitalize on Solaris x86 (which, let’s face it, would have killed Linux before it ever got any traction if Sun had pushed it at all in the late ’90s) and Java (which resulted in BEA and IBM reaping most of Java’s financial rewards). Linux is here to stay, and if I were Sun, I’d want to make sure I had a good Linux story, even as I’m telling my good Solaris/OpenSolaris, developer workstation, and thin client stories.
Want to say the game is over in the enterprise Linux space, with Red Hat and Novell having the lion’s share of the ISV support? The market will probably buy that. Want to compete against these companies with your newly open-source Solaris operating system as an enterprise solution? Given Solaris’ market position and strengths, I think you’ll do well. But what about all those other devices, like server appliances and point-of-sale terminals, where Linux is increasing its footprint and where Solaris doesn’t play at all? Those are part of the network infrastructure too. Furthermore, the game is far from over in a lot of these other markets outside the enterprise space, and the momentum is clearly behind Linux. The time to position yourself to do well here is now, and if Java is the platform of choice for developing new applications, why does it matter if Solaris or Linux are underneath?
Just because you’re not writing to the OS API’s doesn’t mean that the OS doesn’t matter. There are definitely feature and stability differences between Linux and Solaris. I run Linux at home for the advanced routing features and a number of other things. However, I prefer developing for Solaris at work, because of the amount of instrumentation that makes it easier to profile and optimize server applications. (Also, better enterprise storage management tools).
Both have their own niches at this point, but perhaps they’ll converge more over time.
Good overall view. The big question is how can Sun take advantage of (with Linux) of the growing devices markets (Nokia 770), and like server appliances and point-of-sale terminals, where Linux is increasing its footprint and where Solaris doesn’t play at all? Yes, those are parts of the network infrastructure too, but why would any company approach Sun for their Linux solution? Won’t the company be better off by focusing on Solaris, Open Solaris, Java and UltraSparc.
On a seperate not, yes Sun has made pleanty of mistakes in the past, but so have Apple, IBM, HP, Compaq and others. That’s why we still have Microsoft with a monopoly. Very few companies in the tech space have senior management that can a long-term view and go after it.