Sun's recent talk of releasing its Solaris code as open source reeks of desperation. Most observers think Sun is too late to the open-source party, assuming it isn't just trying to capitalize on the buzz. So far, it has revealed few details about how it will proceed.
While Sun is showing signs that it realizes its proprietary OS is no longer the center of the IT universe, IBM and Hewlett-Packard already are well down that path, having shifted their marketing focus away from their Unix variants and toward Linux. Novell is a more dramatic contrast, having all but walked away from the dying NetWare in favor of Linux.
But transforming a culture is never easy, and the process is never complete. Just ask Michael Eisner, who's in the fight of his life 20 years after turning Disney around. In Sun's case, the company's survival is on the line. Dramatic new thinking is its only hope.
Rob Preston is editor in chief of Network Computing. Write to him at [email protected].
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