"McNealy's diametrically opposed views—from 2005 and
today—come from the extreme ends of the ideological spectrum.
In practice, neither argument is wholly accurate. With a properly
planned open source rollout, the migration and management costs can
be minimized and overall IT spending can be reduced. In some cases,
that will mean deploying cost-free community-driven open source
software, and in other cases it will necessitate paying commercial
vendors that offer useful services or proprietary enhancements on
top of open source stacks.
"During McNealy's reign at Sun, the only consistent aspect of
his relationship with open source software was his unwavering
inability to formulate an effective strategy for using it. He wore
a penguin costume to LinuxWorld and proclaimed a love for Linux,
then (only months later) told the press and analysts that open
source was only for the basement-dwellers."
