Sun executives sound off on Java, OS plans

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Sun executives sound off on Java, OS plans

By Paul Roberts

IDG News Service, 03/16/04

Sun is planning a number of announcements in coming weeks to redouble efforts to use aggressive pricing and technological innovation to win customers from competitors, but is downplaying rumors about talks with IBM to create an open-source version of Sun’s Java technology.

In a meeting Tuesday with reporters in Boston, company executives said that technological innovations such as a tool for converting macros from Microsoft Office to its Star Office suite and an upcoming version of its Java Enterprise System software that runs on Red Hat’s version of the Linux operating system will increase Sun’s market share, especially outside the U.S. and Europe.

The company continues to have “great conversations” with IBM, but has not met with IBM in the last week to discuss that company’s suggestion that Sun turn Java into an open-source technology, said Jonathan Schwartz, executive vice president of software at Sun.

In February, Rod Smith, IBM’s vice president for emerging technologies, submitted an open letter to Sun asking the company to turn Java into an open-standards technology and offering IBM resources and code for an open-source Java implementation.

Speaking on Tuesday, Schwartz reiterated his company’s claims that developers can already access Java source code using existing licensing and that turning Java into an open-source technology, as with the Linux operating system, would encourage the development of different Java flavors that would hurt compatibility between Java-based devices.

“There’s a different dynamic in the Java world. Compatibility is the supreme priority. You have to be able to write to one (Java-based) phone, or server, or desktop and have (your code) run on all of them,” he said.

In a free-ranging discussion with journalists, Schwartz and other executives said that Sun’s software is stirring interest in the technology community, especially outside of North America, where organizations are fed up with expensive licensing agreements from competitors such as Microsoft, IBM and Red Hat.

Schwartz predicted the appearance of a “big community” of users of its Solaris operating system, citing that operating system’s availability on a wide variety of hardware platforms and N1 Grid Containers virtualization features that allow companies to make more efficient use of computing resources on Solaris than on Windows or Red Hat Linux.

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Sun snatches up XML guru, 03/15/04

Sun has hired one of the creators of XML, Tim Bray, to help set the technical direction for its software group.

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/0315sunsnatc.html?nl