7 ms·

Sun's stars: Where are they now? And why did they leave?

25 points by ableal 16y ago

nkassis 16y ago
well... damn I wish that Google had bought Sun. That would have been one hell of an invention machine. I guess they are taking the back door way of hiring the ones who are leaving.
- Tamerlin 16y ago
  Google probably didn't want Sun's hardware. They have the dubious honor of having some of the largest processor design teams out there, and yet some of the slowest processors in every generation. I read an article about how much the DB2 folks liked Sparcs, and would MUCH rather convince their customers to buy Sun boxes than IBM, Itanium, or x86 boxes. The reason? The DB2 group charges a per-CPU license fee, similar in magnitude to Oracle's. On a POWER machine they would typically sell 4-8 licenses. On Itanium and x86, they might get to 32. On a comparably performing Sun, 128.
  - rbanffy 16y ago
    The other way to read this is that DB2 licensing favors POWER.
    - Tamerlin 16y ago
      That depends on whether you're buying or selling DB2 licenses. If you're buying, POWER. If you're selling, Sparc.
      - rbanffy 16y ago
        Anyway, it favors the purchase of POWER servers. IBM has to sell them to someone. Linux users won't buy them to run MySQL.
        Tamerlin 16y ago
        Agreed.
      - ZeroGravitas 16y ago
        IBM owns POWER and DB2 though, so it's a cross-subsidy that introduces perverse incentives for the DB2 sales force. Fundamentally it's about licensing decisions, not a technology comparison.
hello_moto 16y ago
It's unfortunate to see the aftermath of Oracle SUN's purchase. I used to explore their website to see what products they have (OpenSSO, OpenDS, OpenPortal, OpenSolaris, OpenESB, MySQL, GlassFish and its supports). Most of them could compete with Microsoft and RedHat in the SMB and in the low to mid level Enterprise sectors. I wish they would spun off the company into 2-3 sub-companies: Hardware, R&D and/or Service. Cause if one is deemed not making money, either they kill it or do something extreme to it, but at least it won't drag the other parts as well.
kjhgfghjk 16y ago
It's basically the same everytime a company gets taken over. Any engineer at the victim company is automatically beneath the lowest engineer at the victor. A few senior VPS get VP roles at the new company as part of the deal - but anyone at the code face might as well just leave.
nailer 16y ago
I've been maintaining this list on Wikipedia (with references to each) since before the acquisition, and I'd be surprised if the author didn't use this article to create his own - there's very little difference between them. So if you'd like an ad free & CC version: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_acquisition_by_Oracle#Impact http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_acquisition_by_Oracle#Impac...
rbanffy 16y ago
I seriously doubt Oracle has the right philosophy and ideals to preserve what was good at Sun. Sun was a hardware company and should focus on it and open-source whatever they could. OpenSolaris is a wonderful driver for sales of Thumper-class servers.

25 points by ableal 16y ago

well... damn I wish that Google had bought Sun. That would have been one hell of an invention machine. I guess they are taking the back door way of hiring the ones who are leaving.

Tamerlin 16y ago
Google probably didn't want Sun's hardware. They have the dubious honor of having some of the largest processor design teams out there, and yet some of the slowest processors in every generation. I read an article about how much the DB2 folks liked Sparcs, and would MUCH rather convince their customers to buy Sun boxes than IBM, Itanium, or x86 boxes. The reason? The DB2 group charges a per-CPU license fee, similar in magnitude to Oracle's. On a POWER machine they would typically sell 4-8 licenses. On Itanium and x86, they might get to 32. On a comparably performing Sun, 128.
- rbanffy 16y ago
  The other way to read this is that DB2 licensing favors POWER.
  - Tamerlin 16y ago
    That depends on whether you're buying or selling DB2 licenses. If you're buying, POWER. If you're selling, Sparc.
    - rbanffy 16y ago
      Anyway, it favors the purchase of POWER servers. IBM has to sell them to someone. Linux users won't buy them to run MySQL.
      - Tamerlin 16y ago
        Agreed.
    - ZeroGravitas 16y ago
      IBM owns POWER and DB2 though, so it's a cross-subsidy that introduces perverse incentives for the DB2 sales force. Fundamentally it's about licensing decisions, not a technology comparison.

hello_moto 16y ago

It's unfortunate to see the aftermath of Oracle SUN's purchase. I used to explore their website to see what products they have (OpenSSO, OpenDS, OpenPortal, OpenSolaris, OpenESB, MySQL, GlassFish and its supports). Most of them could compete with Microsoft and RedHat in the SMB and in the low to mid level Enterprise sectors. I wish they would spun off the company into 2-3 sub-companies: Hardware, R&D and/or Service. Cause if one is deemed not making money, either they kill it or do something extreme to it, but at least it won't drag the other parts as well.

kjhgfghjk 16y ago

It's basically the same everytime a company gets taken over. Any engineer at the victim company is automatically beneath the lowest engineer at the victor. A few senior VPS get VP roles at the new company as part of the deal - but anyone at the code face might as well just leave.

nailer 16y ago

I've been maintaining this list on Wikipedia (with references to each) since before the acquisition, and I'd be surprised if the author didn't use this article to create his own - there's very little difference between them. So if you'd like an ad free & CC version: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_acquisition_by_Oracle#Impact http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_acquisition_by_Oracle#Impac...

rbanffy 16y ago

I seriously doubt Oracle has the right philosophy and ideals to preserve what was good at Sun. Sun was a hardware company and should focus on it and open-source whatever they could. OpenSolaris is a wonderful driver for sales of Thumper-class servers.