In an unexpected move, Sun recently snatched up yet another provider of Open Source software: Innotech, the creator of the popular VirtualBox program. As we previously covered, VirtualBox is a high quality virtual machine solution available under the GNU GPL. It is similar to competitors VMware and Parallels in both speed and features.
With this latest feather in its cap, Sun has an increasingly compelling stable of Open Source solutions, including a powerful operating system (OpenSolaris), a portable programming language (Java), a fully featured office suite (OpenOffice) and an already widely used database system (MySQL).
Sun Microsystems has made a huge leap into the open-source market by purchasing MySQL AB, the company behind the wildly popular MySQL database, for $1 Billion in stocks and cash. In a humorously named blog post titled "Helping Dolphins Fly", Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Shwartz stated that Sun would not only support MySQL once the transaction is finalized, but they'll be throwing their engineering support behind making MySQL more efficient on Sun's software platform.
MySQL is a widely used database product. It is the database used behind many popular sites -- Facebook, Digg, and Google, among others. Sun has long been a proponent of open source software, up until this point Sun has promoted PostgreSQL as a favored database.
MySQL AB was about to seek an IPO offering. We think Sun got a good deal by giving MySQL AB a cool billion, but just hope the MySQL database continues to innovate and carry on it's reputation as a fantastic database platform.
Perhaps with the influx of $800 Million, MySQL can make the leap from your favorite website into the enterprise where the real money is. Some large corporations wouldn't touch a database product that doesn't have support behind it, but if MySQL has a good system in place -- and a sales team who've marketed inside the enterprise for years -- new customers are more likely to take the bait and ditch Oracle or Microsoft's SQL Server.
Stanford University Network Workstation, more commonly known as Sun Microsystems, has decided to change its ticker symbol to something a little more meaningful and symbolic.
The SUNW symbol will be changed to the new trading symbol of JAVA as of next week. This marks a new step in the company's growth strategy, focusing on the power and brand strength of Java as a technology for the web.
Sun is not changing the company name, they will still remain a systems company, however they are simply not just a workstation company and they feel that Java does a better job of capturing what they do on the trading room floor.
The move is slightly perplexing, as OpenOffice.org is absolutely free, and it's built on StarOffice source code. The main difference between the two office suites is that StarOffice includes some proprietary graphics, fonts, and templates.
It's unlikely that Google's eating $70 for every person that downloads the application. In fact, we doubt Google would have made this move if it had cost the company a single penny, so this could be an expansion of the software distribution agreement that Google and Sun share.
It's worth noting that installing the Google Pack version of StarOffice means you get a Google Search toolbar in all of your StarOffice applications, whether it makes sense or not. Writing up that quarterly report, but you need to check to see what the last movie William H. Macy was in, go ahead and search Google. Or your desktop. Oh yeah, or the document you're working on.
The move does seem to indicate that Google will not be moving its Documents & Spreadsheets applications from the web to the desktop anytime soon. But perhaps we'll see integration between the applications in the future? Perhaps you'll be able to create a spreadsheet using StarOffice and save it both to your desktop and to Google Docs & Spreadsheets online.
Later today Sun Microsystems is expected to release the source code to its Java platforms after years of speculation and urging by the open source community. Unlike Solaris and J2EE, which were released under the Common Development and Distribution License, Sun has opted to release the source code for Java Platform Standard Edition (J2SE) and Mobile Edition (J2ME) under the venerable GPL. It will be taking the "classpath exception" to the license, however, which will allow companies and developers who make Java programs to release their software under different licensing, including closed-source ones. Sun's Jonathan Schwartz and Rich Green will be making a webcast at 9:20 a.m. PT today, which can be seen at sun.com/opensource/java, which is also where you'll be able to find the source code and other resources. Sun's Tim Bray provides a few more details on what's in store in his blog.
InfoWorld is reporting that Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz has announced the company has set a time-frame for open-sourcing Java: the next 30 to 60 days. Sun has been under a lot of pressure from the open source community to open up the Java platform, and this May Schwartz announced, but didn't set a timetable for, the eventual open-sourcing. The open source offering will only include the core Java platform, J2SE, and its source will be release under an OSI-approved license, likely the same Common Development and Distribution Licensethat OpenSolaris is under.
This is more of an "offload" than a "download," but it's still a neat idea. Sun this week announced what they think is the future of data-centers: Project Blackbox. The basic idea is pretty simple. Instead of building data-centers in existing buildings, customers will be able to order prefab centers built into storage containers and delivered to a location of their choice pre-built and ready to plug in. A company could even put a Blackbox in in a "rack" at a specially designed col-lo facility, or use it as a remote command center. Think of it as PODS for IT. Sun claims that a single Blackbox could hold 250 Sun Fire T1000 boxes with a total of 2000 cores running 8000 simultaneous threads. Pretty impressive, although the storage figures seem a little low. Sun claims one Blackbox could provide 7TB of disk space, but it looks to me like there should be room for around for a few petabytes, maybe even an exabyte if you really shoehorned the RAIDs, considering even mid-range solutions can put 3.5TB in a single 4U enclosure these days.
No word on when Sun will start actually producing the units, if ever, but it's an interesting idea. I'd like to know what the water hook-up is for, though; I'd don't see anyone pulling one of these into the local RV park with a straight face.
Edit: It's nice to know I'm not going crazy. As Dan points out in the comments, the 7TB figure is for RAM, the storage capacity is 1.5PB, or 2PB of tape.
Sun Microsystems is going to have the first virtual 3D press conference of any fortune 500 company. On Tuesday, October 8th the company will hold their press conference in Second Life instead of at their headquarters or in a briefing room. This shows how much people, companies, and even enterprises are starting to take their traditional business rule book and throw it out the window, to make their business strategy parallel the changing times. Other companies have started to take advantage of this new platform for growth. Hotels have been known to build their real world hotels in SecondLife to show potential guests what it would be like to stay there. There are other endless examples, but Sun is the first to actually hold a press conference of the top companies on Fortune's list. Sun is going to announce that they are diving into SecondLife head-first to test out new ideas, collaboration, and communication strategies. To drop in at their press conference, first you need to have a SecondLife account, free by visiting their site, then visit this link to be teleported to Sun's virtual press conference.
Sun's CIO dropped the news today that Google is using open source implementations of Solaris. Google is currently running Solaris in its data centers, but is looking forward to installing more Sun servers because of the open source Solaris. Given that they have hired on a list of previous Sun employees, it only looks promising for Google to test its own modified versions of Open Solaris.
eBay, Yahoo, Vonage, Disney, and Reuters are also on the list of companies that have adopted the Sun Solaris platform.
Nothing beats a good story at your own conference. It's easy to whip up a crowd when they are all your core supporters, so it's no surprise that when Richard Green, Sun's executive vice president of software, announced at JavaOne that Sun's going to make Java open source, the crowd went wild. As wild as a room full of Java developers is going to get on the floor of the Moscone anyway... Unfortunately, no one at Sun is telling a) how this is going to happen, or b) when this is going to happen. The message is just, "hey, trust us, we're SO doing this." So my question is, how long before we get to call open source Java vaporware? Well there are still a few days to go at JavaOne, so maybe they're saving the best for last.... I have to say it's a little creepy when even James Gosling's blog makes no mention of Java as open source. The only "open" he's talking about? The opening, after much technical difficulty, of the Slot Car Programming Challenge. Whoopee! I agree with Ars Technica: quick yammering about OSS and just do it already...
Sun Microsystems CEO and founder Scott McNealy is
stepping down after 22 years of leading the company. McNealy will be assuming the role of chairman and "chief
evangelist," while Sun president and COO Jonathan Schwartz will be taking over as CEO. McNealy says he's been
working to get Schwartz into the driver's seat for a decade, but that he didn't want to hand over the company during t
fast-moving dot-com boom nor before the company was stabilized after the bust. Sun's stocks saw an 8.6% increase in
after-hours trading following the announcement.
In an unexpected move, Sun recently snatched up yet another provider of Open Source software: Innotech, the creator of the popular VirtualBox program. As we previously covered, VirtualBox is a high quality virtual machine solution available under the GNU GPL. It is similar to competitors VMware and Parallels in both speed and features.
Nothing beats a good story at your own conference. It's easy to whip up a crowd when they are all your core supporters, so it's no surprise that when Richard Green, Sun's executive vice president of software, 
Sun Microsystems CEO and founder Scott McNealy is
stepping down
