“Sun is expected to unveil a Frankenstein-like desktop Linux strategy this week, combining various software elements developed in-house or by open-source community projects and third-party vendors. Sun’s desktop Linux play, which will be spelled out Wednesday at the start of its SunNetwork conference here, marks another shift for the Santa Clara, Calif., company as its battles industry leader Microsoft for the hearts and minds of corporate users.” Read the rest of the article at InfoWorld.
Sun to Shed Light on Desktop Linux Plans
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nuff said
But unfortunately it won’t happen.
Sun’s stock is down 95% from their peak two years ago and their market cap is now $9.9B, compared to $5.3B for Apple (Yahoo finance). Maybe IBM could by both of them, keep Java and sell off the Solaris business… but then HP and Dell would move massively into the .NET camp.
Sun has $5.9 billion in cash. That should more than cover a majority share of Apple. Market capitalization doesn’t translate into buying power.
Sun has $5.9 billion in cash. That should more than cover a majority share of Apple. Market capitalization doesn’t translate into buying power.
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Apple also has a reasonable size war chest at its disposal. If SUN bought out the Mac, cut Ultra Sparc prices, push the chips gradually into Macs + port MacOS X to Ultra Sparc, things could get quite interesting. It would also push their combine reserves to $10billion.
If Sun purchased Apple, then Sun would flounder around horrendously and would just run Apple into the ground because their plans for Apple would change on a weekly or monthly basis.
However, if Apple purchased Sun, if there’s long term potential in the Sparc chipset, then that might be a marriage made in heaven. Apple gets to develop its own chips without being tied to the dead weight of Motorola. Apple could fully integrate Java even further into its desktop environment. Apple would get extensive market penetration into the enterprise.
NO! Mixing Suns daft naming system of dropping major versions, and Apples daft naming system of repeating major version numbers would be hell!
J2SE would become iJ2SE 4.4.4
MacOS X 10.1 would become MacOS X Binnary-star 1.1.1.1.1.1
Please DON’T!
i would sooner hope to see sun being bought out by apple than vice versa. apple would have its new processor along with some sexy java power that they already very much support and sun would get…well, a load of cash and a powerful corporation behind them.
I concur – PLEASE NO!
That will be excellent first brandname distro.
True… they can. But most of Apple’s assets is useless for Sun, being redundant. So buying an entire company for a small part of their assets is the most stupid thing I ever heard.
Besides, Sun doesn’t have enough money to make the sale, facilitate the merger and have money buffers to prevent huge risks.
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stahbird: Sun’s stock is down 95% from their peak two years ago and their market cap is now $9.9B, compared to $5.3B for Apple (Yahoo finance). Maybe IBM could by both of them, keep Java and sell off the Solaris business… but then HP and Dell would move massively into the .NET camp.
Sun’s stock prices doesn’t reflect the asset value it has, nor the amount of money they have. It only reflects investors confidence and amount of capital.
Besides, Sun’s stocks feel besides it decided to ride the dotcom wave and be the king of the hill. When the dotcom economy crashed, so did Sun.
Matthew Gardiner: It would also push their combine reserves to $10billion.
Now it wouldn’t. It would just make ex-Apple investors richer. Sun would have to use most of its money to buy Apple. Apple’s 4 billion bucks would be theirs, but trust me, it won’t be enough to facilitate a merger.
mike burns: i would sooner hope to see sun being bought out by apple than vice versa. apple would have its new processor along with some sexy java power that they already very much support and sun would get…well, a load of cash and a powerful corporation behind them.
This makes less financial sense than the previous suggestion of Sun buying Apple. Apple doesn’t have enough money to buy Sun, no less facilitate a merger. Besides, if anyone should manage Java, it should be IBM. Without IBM, Java would be no where.
Even if Sun has $5-6B in cash, they wouldn’t be able to buy Apple outright, since shareholders typically demand a premium price unless the company is close to bankruptcy. A merger would be more appropriate, and that’s were Sun’s market cap comes into play.
Aside from the financials I don’t think it’s a good idea. Sun’s expertise is almost 100% on the server side, Apple’s is on the consumer desktop. Trying to put together combined solutions for business might just drive away potential Sun customers who prefer Windows on the desktop, for example.
I’m starting to get really anxious waiting for this announcement. I’m not a Sun fanboy so much as I think they have a shot at the corp desktop.
Take a look at these linux for the desktop articles, they make linux look really good. Now think of what Sun has been doing, they have put money into Ximian Gnome, which they now use on Solaris 9. They have Ximian Evolution, which is the closest think to an Outlook replacement yet. They have Star Office, which is like OpenOffice, only better. With a web browser and some java support they have everything an corp. user needs (according to the Sun view of the way the world should work at least.)
Then there is the last stumbling block, getting it on the desktop. If they bundle their linux with their servers for cheap (or free with an E15k) then they may be able to provide a $20-$100/seat licence cost vs Microsofts $500/seat. They can sell it as cheaper, more stable, and supported by their professional services staff, a combo which might just work.
Anyhow, I guess I feel if anyone can dislodge MS from that market Sun can. They have the marketing, and I think they just might have the product too.
You haven’t mentioned why Sun can fair better against Red Hat (especially) and Ximian.
I don’t think Sun would succeed very well. The only advantage they can provide is professional services, in which Red Hat is famous for (plus, its Linux services are much better).
Another way is brandname, though when they think about Linux, they don’t think Sun, which had builts its brandname on mainframes and Solaris. But rather, they think Red Hat.
As for cost of support, Red Hat wins hands down, for sure.
Besides, Ximian is developing an competitor to StarOffice, based on OOo. I’m sure it would be a better deal than StarOffice on Linux (in terms of price, speed, ease of use etc.)