Sun's McNealy starts podcasting

Scott McNealy, Sun Microsystems' previous chief executive and current chairman, never got around to starting a blog, but he has launched a podcast. "The goal is to have a series of interviews with people of interest, and over time, expand the distribution," a Sun representative said, adding that McNealy hopes to post new episodes roughly monthly.

The show, called The McNealy Minute, is available at the company's McNealy Web site.

"When you're not CEO and you're just chairman, you only get a minute," McNealy quipped at the opening of the inaugural show, which contained an interview with new CEO Jonathan Schwartz. He's not so confined, though--the episode lasts 11 minutes and 45 seconds.

McNealy still sounds a little sore from his bruising final years as CEO as his company tried to recover from the dot-com bust. "Jonathan's doing a fantastic job," McNealy said, but added, "I don't miss being inside the pinata. I was thrilled to go do that, but 22 years of getting whacked by a random two-by-four from strange places is something nobody should have to do."

Unsurprisingly, both executives appear eager to tout Sun's innovation and triumphant success. (It is true that the fourth quarter of 2006 went well for Sun, so a certain amount of chest- thumping can be forgiven.)

"When your Sparc systems business is growing at 18 percent a year, there's no way anybody can dismiss us as irrelevant," Schwartz said.