Hell has frozen over.

[Zscoundrel]

I read both statements and I don't see anything new here.  It is mostly 
just flash and smoke to impress the ignorant at the press conference.  
Sun has NOT changed their position.  The first linked story said that 
Sun would open source the software when they figured out a way to do 
that (profitably).  They said that 5 years ago too when they released 
their version of the "open" license.

Unfortunately, no matter how often a company tells the press they are a 
"cutting edge, advanced technology software company" in their press 
releases, it is not an accurate indicator of how smart their management 
really is (or is NOT!)  It also does not tell us that they are sharp 
enough to understand the benefits of open source. 

Sun, like Microsoft, just doesn't get this  whole concept.  They are so 
hung up on the total control of their ideas that they just can't see how 
they can benefit from open source.   ie: obscene profits, which 
translate into huge dividends, which translate into multi-million dollar 
bonuses for the C-level executives. 

It is a little like the paradigm shift taking place prior to the civil 
war.  The northern industrialist found a way to apply labor (wage 
slaves) without actually OWNING the laborers.  The southern plantation 
owners could not understand how they could keep the laborers in the 
fields without clear title to them or the right to "encourage" (beat) 
them to great effort. 

In my opinion, these companies are saying "we have only had one good 
idea, and we don't want anyone to benefit from that idea unless they get 
a lot of money for it.

Jim Herrmann wrote:

> Hell hath no fury like a CEO scorned:
> http://www.pcpro.co.uk/?http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/news_story.php?id=58628 
>
>
> Sun's CEO Scott McNealy has squashed hopes that its Java programming 
> language could be made open source, and cast a shadow over Sun COO 
> Jonathan Schwartz's statement yesterday that the Solaris operating 
> system was to go the same way.
>
> So, who knows?  It could go either way.
>
> Jason Clinton wrote:
>
>> http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/06/04/002224
>>
>> Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I'm afraid I have to report that hell hath
>> indeed frozen over. (Well, at least the first three circles.)
>>
>>
>>  
>>
>
>

-- 
If you examine how Bill Gates funded research into solving the social issues he is concerned about 
las year, you would notice that he is 14 times more concered about the global threat of Linux than 
he is about AIDS. 

This is understandable when you consider the method of transmission.  I suspect Bill is probably 
much more likely to get Linux than he is to get AIDS!!!  After all, you can download and install 
Linux by yourself!