My reaction to Sun being bought? Profound sadness

By now we've all read hundreds of opinions on why Oracle bought Sun Microsystems and whether this is a good or bad decision. I, too, have an opinion, but for once I'm keeping quiet. Rather, I want to reflect on the sadness I feel as Sun becomes an acquired memory like other pioneering tech companies have.

When I started in the tech business over 20 years ago, it was extremely young and exciting. If you went for a drink after work, you would find a saloon full of folks from Digital Equipment Corp., Data General, EMC, Lotus, McCormick & Dodge, and Prime Computer all out doing the same. Much to IBM's chagrin, high tech had been taken over by a bunch of 20 and 30 year olds in Boston and San Jose, Calif., who were going to change the world.

No company represented this sense of anti-establishment more than Sun. When the industry tried to outflank Sun by forming a Unix consortium called the Open Software Federation, Sun sat on the sidelines and let OSF die on its own. When IBM was struggling in the early 1990s, Sun pushed hard and established a base on Wall Street for Unix servers running Sybase. When Hewlett-Packard fell on tough times, Sun was relentless in its criticism and competitive programs. And who can forget some of Scott McNealy's comments about Windows and Microsoft: "Microsoft is now talking about the digital nervous system. I guess I would be nervous if my system was built on their technology." Groucho Marx couldn't have come up with stuff like this.

Sun's "the network is the computer" was totally accurate and prescient. Sun gave us NFS (network file system), Java, and really helped push the establishment of IP. These contributions can't be underestimated. Unfortunately, Sun was also unwilling to change with the times. Despite McNealy's humor, his comments now read a lot like those of another brilliant but inflexible leader, Ken Olsen of once-mighty Digital.

I'll miss Sun's irreverence, its optimism, and its innovative spirit, but most of all I'll miss what Sun represented, the last vestige of the golden age of the tech industry. Unlike those heady days in Boston back in the 1980s, our industry is now mature with only a few tech giants left. Cisco Systems is now building its own servers and Oracle is a hardware company. I guess we did change the world to some extent, just not the way we thought we would.

[shootthecops]

hopefully under new ownership, we'll see the easing regulations on openoffice's code and solaris license compatibility with linux. there is nothing to lose by this buyout.

[ti99_forever]

"Sun gave us NFS (network file system), Java, and really helped push the establishment of IP."

Well, 2 out of 3 ain't bad. Wish Java had never seen the light of day, though... ugh!

[kast5089]

Java broke new ground in a way that no other platform had before, and it has spawned numerous imitators. Not to mention that Java is deployed on enterprise systems worldwide and -- despite its many flaws -- it has been a boon to those of us working on the server-side.

[alegr]

Yea, NFS with its "brilliant" idea of IP address-based access control and stateless protocol.

[monkeyfun14]

Whats wrong with Java?

It helped create the worlds most advanced browser based MMO

[goat742]

I agree with Jon Oltsik ,it is sad to see the sun set on Sun. Sun and DEC were two great innovators in the compter business and have now sufferred the same fate, but for different reasons. Sun, as it was never successful in integrating some wonderful technology that it aquired for billions on the open market. And, DEC because of it's NIH (not invented here) attitude and the politically supercharged corporate culture that caused it to be so inwardly focuses. Two great pioneering companies that changed the industry. Too bad they couldn't change with it. That's my assessment. I worked for DEC for almost 19 years and Sun for 10 years. RIP Sun and DEC.

[Go Sox]

It is sad. I worked for DEC and Prime and saw many from DEC move to Sun. Peter Drucker pointed out that the natural lifespan of a company is about 25 years, which is the time for the founder to build and lose a grip on it. Even An Wang wasn't able to build for the ages. It would appear to be a natural human phenomenon. That said, they were great companies that enabled many of us to learn, grow and develop into the people we are today. I'm proud to have been a part of that time, bringing computers to the world. RIP.

[RighteousSoutherner]

Yeah, java, lol. .Net beat that to a pulp several years ago. Oracle's buying a turkey and it knows it. I bet Ellison really had his eye on the cash reserves of Sun. The buck-toothed buzzard that McNealy is, he never could quite get over Microsoft's success. Now Ellison can continue to mock Microsoft (and Bill Gates) and carry the torch forward as Oracle becomes another giant conglomerate like IBM. That is, innovating nothing and producing medocre products. Thank God for Microsoft!

[kast5089]

".Net beat that to a pulp several years ago. "

You must be from bizarro world.

[rrod182]

Hahahaha, milk came out of my nose, really!!!! I thought Steve Ballmer was was banned from writing CNET comments. The only reason .NET made any progress is because the DOJ didn't do their job.

Other than Java, Sun has done little for us. My only worry is what Oracrap will do the MySQL. Free software doesn't buy billion dollar yachts.

[vikinzer]

The story you tell is the story of countless "industries". Some day in the future the green tech industry that is exploding now will have the same story to tell. I hate to say it, but you didn't change the world at all, you only moved to a different place within it and so saw it differently.

[kjhosein]

Agreed Jon. I thought the same thing too (my blog entry: http://is.gd/tM2A). I will miss Sun as well.

[UnixGent]

The Unix consortium you refer to is Open Software Foundation, not Federation.

[soluto]

(CARTOON) Will Oracle Get Burned?

http://www.pcdisorder.com/2009/04/will-oracle-be-burned.html

[SCD]

Well, I have a WIndows98-2 and the best OS it could have would be XP, but Microsoft is now getting out of updates on XP. So anyway, when Sun sued Microsoft, Sun won. Too bad they couldn't keep track of the winning funds! But in CA we got, finally, paid for the lawsuit, and with those funds I bought Microsot's Word for Home and Family. It works fine in my Vista Laptop. Funny, Sun forgot word and I still get updates on word 2000 from MS. Wonders never cease. I'll miss the Java, it means I'll never be able to redo the 98-2 since it has always need Java from Sun.com Win some lose some.

[blundberg]

Well. This is how industries function. They grow through a white period, companies come and go and the culture is very revolutionary/innovative. Then they mature and consolidate or change venues. It's an important process. Mature industries can still innovate, look at innovations in transportation and energy production to name a few more mature sectors that still produce new technology, its just that the process is much less about one guy taking a great idea to the top, but a company with good researchers and the ability to fund a few bad misses. Creative destruction and survival of the fittest have always marked tech and this move displays the continuation and maturation of that process.