Sun CEO decries U.S. visa policy
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Sun Microsystems Chief Executive Scott McNealy on Wednesday lambasted the United States' H1-B visa policy that limits how many foreign workers may come to the country.
McNealy spoke on a panel discussion at the Computer History Museumhere with his fellow Sun cofounders, Vinod Khosla, Andy Bechtolsheim and Bill Joy. In it, McNealy observed that Khosla and Bechtolsheim both were born in another country, as was James Gosling, who was instrumental in the creation of the Java software technology.
"We are absolutely torching ourselves by not letting all the really smart people come here to the valley. We shouldn't let them in unless we get them to commit to staying at least 10 years. Instead, we do the exact opposite," McNealy said. "Why don't we want another James Gosling or Vinod Khosla to set up shop here."
And the Internal Revenue Service hasn't suffered from Sun's international connections. "How many billions of dollars of taxes have you paid?" McNealy asked of Khosla and Bechtolsheim. "You are hardly a burden on our society."
Stephen Shankland writes about a wide range of technology and products, but has a particular focus on browsers and digital photography. He joined CNET News in 1998 and since then also has covered Google, Yahoo, servers, supercomputing, Linux and open-source software, and science. E-mail Stephen, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/stshank.
