“Several weeks ago, we cocked a collective eyebrow at Sun. When
executive VP Jonathan Schwartz said ‘we do not believe that Linux
plays a role on the server. Period,’ we didn’t have much of a
choice.“Our read on the statement was that it was more than a little
hyperbolic, perhaps fueled by bitterness at Linux making lunch meat
of Solaris x86.“As reported last week, Hewlett-Packard pounced on the PR
goldmine Schwartz offered, making an admirable but unremarkable
offer to pass some incentives along to enterprises that drop their
Solaris installations for HP gear running Linux. Hand it to HP: It
understands how a lot of IT types are caught up in the emotionally
charged questions of ‘loyalty’ Linux engenders in the less coldly
rational among us.“So after two straight weeks of puzzling over Sun’s
incomprehensible dithering about its love/hate relationship with
Linux and reporting on HP’s attempt at a flanking maneuver, we
shouldn’t have been surprised to hear from someone at Sun. That
someone ended up being John Loiacono, Sun’s VP of Operating
Platforms…”