Sun rises on (to?) Open Source

Lots of reports — e.g. this in the NYT — that Sun Microsystems is planning to release its crown jewels (the Solaris operating system) in an open source format. The reports make the company’s position seem completely incoherent, so may be complete hooey. (But most quote the Sun COO as making noises in the open source direction.) Ironically, this development coincides with Sun’s new rapprochment with Microsoft. From my point of view, any convert to open source is welcome, but Sun must be getting desperate to be thinking about it. It’s the way Linux has undermined their ‘natural’ markets that’s at the root of their problems. In which case, they may have missed the boat. Pity. Sun was such a good company, once. But then, so was DEC.