“Sun Microsystems and Intel finally are seeing eye to eye on
whether Sun’s Solaris operating system should run on Intel’s
upcoming Itanium chip: Now both companies think it’s a lousy
idea.”
“In February, Intel drastically cut its support of Sun’s effort
to bring Solaris to Itanium, saying that Sun wasn’t sufficiently
committing resources or time to the project. Then the squabble
escalated: Sun reaffirmed its plan to bring Solaris to Itanium,
while Intel broadly hinted that Sun had become its primary
competitor, and target, in the server market.”
“Now things have changed. In an interview yesterday, Sun chief
financial officer Mike Lehman said that running Solaris on Itanium,
which was delayed again this week, is not an important part of
Sun’s future. “We’re not going to fight that battle. Their
customers will decide what they really want,” Lehman said.”
“Intel, for its part, hasn’t changed its position. “We
weren’t seeing much commitment on Sun’s part” or seeing interest by
software companies writing programs for Solaris on Itanium, said
spokesman Bill Kircos. “We’re seeing overwhelming support for
Windows 2000, Linux and Monterey, and that’s where our focus
is.”