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The disaster was known...
... the day Solaris was open-sourced. The company sacrificed $100 million per year in revenues. Perhaps more if the new version would have added paying customers. And more still if Sun's improved hardware sales increased use of Solaris.

Now Sun has any service contracts that former paying customers might have decided to purchase. Given the sophistication of Solaris users, I don't think 100% of the customer base decided to make the transition. And those who did would have expected to pay less.

But at least Sun can accept the good feelings of those able to move from Sun hardware with greater ease should they choose to do so. And some of the company's former paying customers might be willing to buy Sun executives lunch.

Even Sun representatives have said that the hoped-for greater number of applications will not occur for years. But if Solaris is not in wider use, those applications will not appear.

Sun placed a bet with real cash in hopes of a change in the way software is sold and used that works to their benefit.

You might have noticed Sun's other investment: investors complained about the high salaries paid executives. Maybe they were counting their Solaris chickens long before they hatched.
Posted by: Anton Philidor   Posted on: 10/23/06 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use
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I look forward to open-source Java...  Henry Miller | 10/23/06
Tell that to  Suicida| | 10/23/06
how about SDL and it's friends  shryko | 10/23/06
The license provisions...  Anton Philidor | 10/23/06
Agreed  Erik Engbrecht | 10/23/06
Who?  Richard Flude | 10/23/06
The disaster was known...  Anton Philidor | 10/23/06
Where's the disaster?  Richard Flude | 10/24/06
Might have beens.  Anton Philidor | 10/24/06
Their demise predates open source  Richard Flude | 10/24/06
alternative business model...  shryko | 10/23/06
Too little, too late?  CobraA1 | 10/23/06
Methinks  zkiwi | 10/23/06
Agreed  davidsarmstrong | 10/23/06

What do you think?

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