ZDNet: Free Software and Offshore Outsourcing Make Waves

“ZDNet reader Gary Woodman from Australia has been challenging
my conclusions from LinuxWorld that Sun may have little choice but
to acquire some additional software stack components, such as MySQL
and Zend (the PHP guys). In a recent e-mail, Woodman wrote, ‘Sun
feels, as most would, that it doesn’t need its ‘own’ database; if
it’s not happy with Oracle, it could forge an alliance with MySQL,
sponsor PostGres or Firebird, or build on its relationship with
Software AG. Sun could have an enterprise-class database if it
wanted one. My feeling is that Sun is just acknowledging that there
are plenty of good ones for their customers to choose, and that
it’s an uphill battle enough to try to sell people on Sun hardware
and OS without the person-years of redevelopment that changing
enterprise databases would require.’

“Woodman raises a valid point about Sun trying to maintain a
certain amount of neutrality, but that neutrality is becoming more
difficult to maintain as Sun’s rivals compete on some fairly
unorthodox terms…”

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