McNealy to Ellison: How to duck death by open source

“Let’s forget the last few years ever happened — the last
five, at least. Possibly 10. In the 1980s Sun Microsystems was on
fire.

“Founded in 1982, Sun raked in so much money that it broke the
psychologically important $1bn sales barrier in six years. It took
Microsoft 15 years to hit $1bn — six if your starting point
is the date Microsoft was incorporated. Oracle — up the road
from Sun — took 14 years.

“Sun was the fastest growing US company between 1985 and 1989,
according to Forbes, and supplied the entire US government with
more than half its workstations nine years after starting.”

Complete Story