SRO: McNealy: Microsoft Should Meet Conditions or Break Up | Linux Today

SRO: McNealy: Microsoft Should Meet Conditions or Break Up

Written By
Web Webster
Web Webster
Nov 18, 1999

“Sun CEO Scott McNealy Wednesday called for a breakup of
Microsoft if the company can’t comply with the remedies that Sun
recommends be imposed on the company….”

“In the Q&A, McNealy was forced to defend Sun’s Community
Source License, a quasi open-source license for Java 2, Jini and
other Sun technologies that requires developers to fix bugs, pass
compatibility tests and pay Sun royalties if they ship products.
“If you go from capitalism to the commune where there are no
trademark and property rights, you can’t guarantee Write Once Run
Everywhere,” he said. “You don’t see Linux on Sony cameras and
smart cards.”

Some questioners argued that embedded Linux is widespread,
and McNealy declined to argue further. But he did say 71 percent of
Fortune 1000 companies are using Java and claimed “the rest are
going out of business
…Sun is a controversial stock and I
hope it stays that way. If everybody bought into SCSL we would have
no differentiation and no advantage.”

Complete
Story

Web Webster

Web Webster

Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.

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