[rescue] rescue Digest, Vol 124, Issue 3

[Andrew Jones]

On 03/04/2013 01:21 PM, Gary Sloane wrote:
 >
>  If Sun made it look like the
> Linux/Opteron combination was a valid replacement for Solaris/SPARC then
> people would quicly realize it was cheaper to purchase the hardware at Fry's
> rather than from Sun.
>

The problem is that a standard PC with x86_64 really *is* a valid 
replacement for Solaris/SPARC.  Sun, and every other OEM, could see the 
writing on the wall.  Sun's entire annual budgets were less than what 
Intel might spend on a single processor design.

HP, Dell, and IBM were very successful in convincing customers that 
their x86 platforms were better than whiteboxes from Supermicro, and 
it's very easy to understand why.  Tested platforms with support 
matrixes for every imaginable configuration are really great.  If they 
had started sooner and pushed harder, Sun could have been among their 
number.

Pushing Solaris on Opteron and the HP Solaris OEM deal were the best 
things Sun managed to do in their waning days, and that was too little, 
too late.



P.S. perspective can be painful.  In 2013 I can get a 1.5 TB x86 box in 
a 1U.  A comparable Fujitsu SPARC is a one or more 42U cabinets!  The 
numbers for 2008 are only slightly less shocking.  And this is simple 
density, before dollars or CPU power even enter the picture.