[rescue] the linux is comming, the linux is comming!

[James Lockwood]

On Tue, 14 May 2002, Big Endian wrote:

> http://news.com.com/2100-1001-912666.html
>
> According ot this article sun wants to try to merge qualities of
> solaris into linux and "qualities" of linux into solaris.  WTF?

<rant>

Much of this strategy is doomed for obvious reasons.  Note that none of
these have to do with any intrinsic superiority or inferiority of Linux vs
Solaris, merely the recognition of different markets.

If Sun sells essentially vanilla Linux/x86 with minor tweaks, they have no
real marketing distinction.  They cannot compete effectively with the PC
mass market.

If Sun forks Linux to do Good Things with the kernel and userland, it will
likely be perceived as a Great Commercial Evil by hordes of Linuxites even
if the code is freely licensed.

If Sun tries to make their money off of support and service, they have to
be able to effectively justify their position as a premium provider.  They
can't do this in the Linux world at present.  If anyone could, it would be
the entrenched Linux companies, and none of them are dealing in the type
of service and volume that Sun would need.

I tried to convince Sun at every opportunity for TEN YEARS that they could
make money off of Solaris x86 if they would get into the premium x86
hardware biz, even just by stockpiling commodity parts and offering
software support comparable to what they offer with SPARC.  The biggest
nightmare of x86 isn't the terrible, hack upon hack architecture, it's the
fact that 6 months after buying a system you often cannot get another one
like it or exact replacement parts through conventional channels.
Supposedly identical replacements turn out to break drivers or cause other
unrelated problems.

Now Sun is pushing Linux/x86 at the low end.  They are in much the same
position that IBM was in in the 70's, DEC was in the 80's, and SGI was in
the 90's (and still is).  The low end creeps inexorably upwards.

John Gage was our rep at a previous employer once upon a time.  Obviously
I didn't yell loudly enough.

</rant>

-James