Comments on: Simon Phipps Has No Idea How Badly Sun ”Screwed Up“ http://techrights.org/2008/06/25/simon-phipps-has-no-idea-how-badly-sun-%e2%80%9dscrewed-up%e2%80%9c/ Free Software Sentry – watching and reporting maneuvers of those threatened by software freedom Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:00:35 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Michael http://techrights.org/2008/06/25/simon-phipps-has-no-idea-how-badly-sun-%e2%80%9dscrewed-up%e2%80%9c/comment-page-1/#comment-13554 Michael Thu, 26 Jun 2008 02:58:32 +0000 http://boycottnovell.com/2008/06/25/simon-phipps-has-no-idea-how-badly-sun-%e2%80%9dscrewed-up%e2%80%9c/#comment-13554 All of these companies are still proprietary software companies. They all want the same thing, and work basically the same way to get it. As much as they make out otherwise, they all want to be Microsoft themselves. I'm sure IBM has a particularly long memory of being buggerised by MS, and Sun still can't understand why all their great technology never takes off like the MS rubbish does (or the Apple fluff for that matter). (Hint: marketing, Sun are a tech company, Apple and MS are marketing companies.) And Sun has no reason, logically or commercially, to 'like' linux - it's a direct competitor to their primary software product and it has cost them real money. Why should they like linux? Even say, Redhat and Suse (before being bought by Novell) although they slept in the same bed, did not 'like' each other - and nor should they, they are competitors. They are all commercial enterprises (proprietary or otherwise), and their goal is always to beat the competition, however they can, whomever they are. Remember, sun's deal was mostly about making solaris free software. Solaris is a direct competitor to linux, free or proprietary. Even if they could (and they probably could not - contract details are always commercial in confidence surely), why should they help linux? Sure it looks bad to some of the hairys, and it takes a bit of shine off their (quite substantial - compare them to IBM for example) free software efforts, but they have no moral obligation to help the competition. And it probably would've just got lost in the fud anyway - another press release with no more weight than the last one. The real story is what is going to happen when Novell wins its case against SCO? It will be very interesting to see what they do with Sun and Solaris and their 'worthless' scosource license. Is Novell going to go down the route of 'We own Unix(tm), pay us more, or else!' and replace SCO's shenanigans with their own? Sun cannot put the genie back in the bottle, free Solaris is already out there - if the scosource license is meaningless (and wildly undervalued anyway - see how Novell are pre-positioning their claims in the case against sco), does it mean a huge payout to Novell? And is Novell going to treat MS and Sun in the same manner, or has their MS deal already cleared the air between them? All of these companies are still proprietary software companies. They all want the same thing, and work basically the same way to get it. As much as they make out otherwise, they all want to be Microsoft themselves.

I’m sure IBM has a particularly long memory of being buggerised by MS, and Sun still can’t understand why all their great technology never takes off like the MS rubbish does (or the Apple fluff for that matter). (Hint: marketing, Sun are a tech company, Apple and MS are marketing companies.)

And Sun has no reason, logically or commercially, to ‘like’ linux – it’s a direct competitor to their primary software product and it has cost them real money. Why should they like linux? Even say, Redhat and Suse (before being bought by Novell) although they slept in the same bed, did not ‘like’ each other – and nor should they, they are competitors.

They are all commercial enterprises (proprietary or otherwise), and their goal is always to beat the competition, however they can, whomever they are.

Remember, sun’s deal was mostly about making solaris free software. Solaris is a direct competitor to linux, free or proprietary. Even if they could (and they probably could not – contract details are always commercial in confidence surely), why should they help linux? Sure it looks bad to some of the hairys, and it takes a bit of shine off their (quite substantial – compare them to IBM for example) free software efforts, but they have no moral obligation to help the competition. And it probably would’ve just got lost in the fud anyway – another press release with no more weight than the last one.

The real story is what is going to happen when Novell wins its case against SCO?

It will be very interesting to see what they do with Sun and Solaris and their ‘worthless’ scosource license. Is Novell going to go down the route of ‘We own Unix(tm), pay us more, or else!’ and replace SCO’s shenanigans with their own? Sun cannot put the genie back in the bottle, free Solaris is already out there – if the scosource license is meaningless (and wildly undervalued anyway – see how Novell are pre-positioning their claims in the case against sco), does it mean a huge payout to Novell? And is Novell going to treat MS and Sun in the same manner, or has their MS deal already cleared the air between them?

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