“Years back, Sun was under pressure in the market. Although many
users loved our core Solaris operating system, others thought it
was built for high end computers, not grid systems. Our computer
business had failed to keep pace with the rest of the
industry–which meant our volume systems looked expensive. In
combination, and with a poor track record of supporting Solaris off
of Sun hardware, we gave customers one choice–leave Sun. Many did.
Those were the dark days.“Where did they go? They went to GNU/Linux, a free and open
source operating system built by a growing community, running on
x86 systems. Why? Because the pair (‘Linux on a whitebox’)
delivered, then, better grid performance, with more flexibility. We
didn’t erect barriers to exit, we promoted customer choice. Even
when it cut the wrong way, as it did here. And yes, it hurt…”