Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 10th Sep 2009 19:41 UTC, submitted by poundsmack
SUN Microsystems There we are! It took them a while, but Oracle has finally said a few things about the future of Sun's SPARC and Solaris products. Oracle placed an ad in the European edition of The Wall Street Journal listing four plans the company has with SPARC and Solaris.
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binarycrusader
Member since:
2005-07-06

"The core talent hasn't gone anywhere. I have no idea why people continue to believe this.

Probably because there's a lot of pretty strong rumours and firm events to suggest that all is not well, and many are people who have been with the company for a long time?
...
Quite how you can say that there isn't a problem with talent leaving, distractions and morale there I don't know. It's an open 'pretend' secret in many circles and the result of a classic case of being in a market where costs are too high but not being able to maintain what you have when you cut.
"

I'll put it very plainly, I know *many* of the engineers that work on Solaris at Sun and they haven't gone anywhere. The media likes to make big noise about people that leave whenever a company is having problems, but that's all it is: noise.

It's true that Sun has laid off many people, but so did a lot of other companies over the last two years (hello, recession!). Yet, despite that, I can tell you with certainty that Sun has kept its core talent, and none of them really want to leave.

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 2

segedunum Member since:
2005-07-06

I'll put it very plainly, I know *many* of the engineers that work on Solaris at Sun and they haven't gone anywhere.

I'm sure you do, but that doesn't paint over the thousands of people who have been laid off over a number of years and the people who are still being laid off recently. So many have gone that you have to wonder who else can go now - and operating costs versus revenue is still high.

The media likes to make big noise about people that leave whenever a company is having problems, but that's all it is: noise.

If you see lots of smoke then the logic goes that there is a fire somewhere. That logic hasn't changed, especially when a company is having known problems.

It's true that Sun has laid off many people, but so did a lot of other companies over the last two years (hello, recession!).

It hasn't just been the last two years and I'm afraid it hasn't been because of the recession - the recession has just pushed things over the edge to the point where Sun needed to get bought out quickly:

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2009/03/31/sun_layoffs_confirmed/ - 2009

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/01/sun_q3_down/ - 2008

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/07/sun_to_axe_more_jobs/ - 2007

http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2006/08/silve... - 2006 - they'd been getting the boot over a period of four years

http://news.cnet.com/Ex-Sun-exec-lambasts-Suns-late-layoffs/2100-10... - they'd axed cut more than 13,000 jobs between 2001 and 2005, but expenses remained high.

Yet, despite that, I can tell you with certainty that Sun has kept its core talent, and none of them really want to leave.

That remains to be seen. There's a bit of noise there when a lot of smoke is being created. What Sun needed, years ago, was to get products to market quickly in the market that they have decided they want to be in. The Rock delay debacle, amongst other things, wasn't what they needed and despite all the talk over Niagara single-threaded performance is what people demand.

Despite Oracle's reassurances to existing customers they aren't going to let their cash pile be frittered away on competing with IBM in particular, in a market where they've been losing out for some time.

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 2

Kebabbert Member since:
2007-07-27

SEGEDUNUM,
Earlier I complained that you claimed lots of false things without any evidence. For instance you claimed that ZFS need several GB RAM - which is a wrong statement. People have run ZFS on 512MB, and FreeBSD's ZFS implementation had a bug which made ZFS require much RAM. I asked for proof of your claim, but you didnt provide any. Still you continued to claim. That was wrong of you.

In this post, you provide links and you are clear that they are your opinions. You dont state as facts, but as your opinions. You can not say that "ZFS needs several of GB to function" as a declarative fact, when it is not.

Because you provide links and proofs, and you state your opinions, I have no problem at all with your post. Sure, I dont agree with you as I am a SUN supporter, and you strongly dislike SUN - but that is totally ok. You can disagree with me, and you can write whatever bad things you want, about SUN - as long you are clear that it is your opinions and that you provide links. I will never complain on your posts, then.

You can hate SUN or whatever in your posts, it is ok. I will not argue against you. Everyone has right to have an opinion. If you dislike SUN, that is ok.

Just wanted to make this clear to you. I will not attack your posts if you continue like this: opinions and proofs (via web links). If someone attacks your posts, I will defend you. Because everyone has the right to have an opinion.

But if you write false things, you will have a problem with me. Like "Niagara SPARC is slower than Power6" - which is not true. Some benches SPARC is many times faster than Power6. That would be a false statement, that needs to be corrected. If you write "I like Power6 better" - then that is ok. Because it is your personal opinion. Other people wont be misled to believe that Power6 is faster, they understand it is your personal preference.

"I may not agree with you, but I will give my life for your right to express yourself" - some clever guy said so long time ago.

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 3

Macrat Member since:
2006-03-27

I'll put it very plainly, I know *many* of the engineers that work on Solaris at Sun and they haven't gone anywhere


The good ones have already left.

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: -1

binarycrusader Member since:
2005-07-06

"I'll put it very plainly, I know *many* of the engineers that work on Solaris at Sun and they haven't gone anywhere


The good ones have already left.
"

No, they haven't. If you were involved in the OpenSolaris community, this would be obvious.

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 2