The Register: Gwana-gwana Landslide Buries Sun Linux

“What are we to make of Sun’s Linux Desktop announcement? We
inadvertently provided the answer ourselves talking to Sun
executives yesterday. What a good idea it is, we mused, to revive
the vendor show: the press arrives in droves, and for a few hours
at least, you have their undivided attention.

“The trick is to sneak something onto the wires, even though we
will all have forgotten exactly what it was they said in a few
months time. This worked a treat yesterday: Sun’s plan to strike at
Microsoft’s desktop heartland made the leader column of the New
York Times, which people round here seem to think is a very big
deal. (The truth is somewhat different, as we’ll see: Sun isn’t so
much striking at the heartland as making low-level offshore flying
runs in planes equipped to broadcast rude noises).

“As a residual benefit, many other parts of Sun’s business bask
in attention they wouldn’t otherwise have received. For example
today is ‘N1’ day–and we nursed hopes of seeing a recreation of
King’s Cross station and Islington’s Union Chapel as a tribute to
London’s most cinematic postcode–but that’s a different N1. We’ll
also hear about elliptical cryptography, and much else too…”

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