3 ms·

I wonder what would have happened to ZFS, java and all those technologies if IBM have bought Sun?

by gdsdfe 5y ago

ksec 5y ago
This is an interesting question. Despite HN's hatred against Oracle. I still think they are a better steward for Java, JVM and MySQL. If it was IBM it would have fallen under the management of Ginni Rometty....... Current IBM CEO seems to have a much better vision and strategy. Although time will tell whether he could execute and succeed.
- skissane 5y ago
  I am thinking about the big problems they had with getting J2EE transferred to the Eclipse Foundation. In the end they had to rename it (to Jakarta EE) and even change all the package names (!). Nobody can know for sure, but I have the suspicion that in an alternate timeline in which IBM bought Sun, the same transfer may have happened, but probably much more smoothly. The days of Solaris and SPARC were always numbered but I wonder if IBM might have managed their decline with more grace and less abruptness than Oracle has. I was particularly struck by Oracle's decision to suddenly (and without explanation) discontinue UNIX V7 certification for Solaris, after investing so much effort in obtaining it. Given IBM already has POWER, it is unlikely IBM would have wanted to keep SPARC going long-term. It probably would have absorbed some of the technologies, patents, and engineering talent, and transferred that to POWER. Still, at least all that would have given all that somewhere to live on, Oracle's semiconductor division ended up being obliterated. Likewise, the fact that IBM already has AIX would mean they probably wouldn't want to keep Solaris going long-term. I wonder if they might have somehow tried to merge AIX and Solaris. That could have been interesting. I also wonder if IBM might have, unlike Oracle, kept OpenSolaris alive. And I also wonder what the ZFS licensing situation would have been with IBM as its owner (would IBM have been more likely to relicense from CDDL to GPLv2?) (Disclaimer: Former Oracle employee, although I never really had any personal involvement in the topics I'm discussing.)
- moonchild 5y ago
  Java and mysql are treated well, yes, but those are major money makers. Would IBM have done worse? I don't think that's clear. Solaris languishes, and dtrace/zfs run better on freebsd today. IBM acquired redhat, demonstrating a willingness to develop opensource operating systems.
  - ksec 5y ago
    >IBM acquired redhat Yes that is my point. Redhat acquisition was entirely the current CEO's making. Before that I am not so sure.

I wonder what would have happened to ZFS, java and all those technologies if IBM have bought Sun?

by gdsdfe 5y ago

I wonder what would have happened to ZFS, java and all those technologies if IBM have bought Sun?

ksec 5y ago

This is an interesting question. Despite HN's hatred against Oracle. I still think they are a better steward for Java, JVM and MySQL. If it was IBM it would have fallen under the management of Ginni Rometty....... Current IBM CEO seems to have a much better vision and strategy. Although time will tell whether he could execute and succeed.

skissane 5y ago
I am thinking about the big problems they had with getting J2EE transferred to the Eclipse Foundation. In the end they had to rename it (to Jakarta EE) and even change all the package names (!). Nobody can know for sure, but I have the suspicion that in an alternate timeline in which IBM bought Sun, the same transfer may have happened, but probably much more smoothly. The days of Solaris and SPARC were always numbered but I wonder if IBM might have managed their decline with more grace and less abruptness than Oracle has. I was particularly struck by Oracle's decision to suddenly (and without explanation) discontinue UNIX V7 certification for Solaris, after investing so much effort in obtaining it. Given IBM already has POWER, it is unlikely IBM would have wanted to keep SPARC going long-term. It probably would have absorbed some of the technologies, patents, and engineering talent, and transferred that to POWER. Still, at least all that would have given all that somewhere to live on, Oracle's semiconductor division ended up being obliterated. Likewise, the fact that IBM already has AIX would mean they probably wouldn't want to keep Solaris going long-term. I wonder if they might have somehow tried to merge AIX and Solaris. That could have been interesting. I also wonder if IBM might have, unlike Oracle, kept OpenSolaris alive. And I also wonder what the ZFS licensing situation would have been with IBM as its owner (would IBM have been more likely to relicense from CDDL to GPLv2?) (Disclaimer: Former Oracle employee, although I never really had any personal involvement in the topics I'm discussing.)
moonchild 5y ago
Java and mysql are treated well, yes, but those are major money makers. Would IBM have done worse? I don't think that's clear. Solaris languishes, and dtrace/zfs run better on freebsd today. IBM acquired redhat, demonstrating a willingness to develop opensource operating systems.
- ksec 5y ago
  >IBM acquired redhat Yes that is my point. Redhat acquisition was entirely the current CEO's making. Before that I am not so sure.