Sun Eats Crow, Feathers Pass Without Incident
Today, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems announced a 10
year, 1.9 Billion (that's with a "B") deal that would put all litigation
behind them. This comes on the heels of an announcement that Sun will lay off
3,300 employees, and that Sun's losses in the previous quarter were deeper than
expected, around $800 Million.
So who is the big winner today? Arguably, Microsoft. Sun will allow them to
continue supporting the Java VM. .NET Will be able to interoperate with Java
better. And Microsoft gets to look like a humanitarian to a company whose
big-mouthed leader is rapidly driving them to irrelevancy. Sure, Sun benefits
more from the deal, IMO, because Microsoft (Again, IMO) is a better, smarter
company. But all the interoperability stuff will do is ease the migration path
from Sun to Microsoft for customers. The Microsoft VM (.NET) is arguably better
than Java, and Microsoft's version of the Java Desktop (Longhorn) will be better
as well.
But that's just what I think.