1 Jun
2006
1 Jun
'06
4:59 p.m.
I think this was a long time coming. They never did
seem to rebound after
the dot com crash.
They've also been forced to narrow their software product scope somewhat as
nobody seems to want to pay for commercial software these days if there's a
free alternative.
I'm starting to wonder if OpenSolaris was a good financial move for them
though.
I'm not worried. I think Sun will be around many years from now.
I've thought from the start that OpenSolaris is a bad idea. With IRIX
barely even on life support, and HP seeming inclined to ignore HP-UX and
Tru64 (which is technically dead anyway) in favor of Linux, Solaris well on
its way to be the only Commercial Unix left besides AIX.
Making all of their development software available as free downloads is an
interesting move (the CD/DVD sets are *VERY* reasonably priced as well). I
don't know if it's a good move or a bad move. As a Hobbyist, it's nice, as
I can finally use thier tools, but I can't help but feel it might be bad for
them in the long run.
I'm in the process of setting up a Sunblade 1000 up as a developement
system, if the cost of feeding it electricity and the problems with the heat
it generates weren't enough, these layoffs really makes me wonder if I should
bother investing any more time in Solaris :^( I'd much rather work on a
good Solaris box, but Linux on a nice Intel processor looks to be the better
choice from where I'm sitting.
Zane