[Info-vax] Maybe a bit OT, maybe not.. in any case an interesting article

[Richard B. Gilbert]

On 5/14/2012 8:04 AM, Mazzini Alessandro wrote:
>>>
>>> Sun SPARC/Solaris used to be pretty popular for web servers.
>>> Maybe it still is.
>>
>> It is becoming dramatically less popular thanks to Larry. Have a look on
>> ebay. People are dumping perfectly good SPARCware by the metric tonne and
>> pallet load. Most webservers today seem to be running Windows or FreeBSD
>> on
>> Intel commodity crapware. I'm shorting SPARC futures...
>>
>
> Bit deviating from the topic but, given that I admit my total ignorance
> about the Sparc current situation... why is it becoming dramatically less
> popular after being purchased by Oracle ?
>
>

Sun offered free software.  Anyone could download and use the SPARC 
software.  Sun's game plan was to make money on support.  Oracle
did not continue Sun's policy.

Let them wallow in the mess they've mad.  I've got licensed copies of
Solaris 8, 9, and 10 and OLD Sun SPARC hardware: Ultra 5 and Ultra 10 
workstations.  They were my home laboratory!  I could break things
because I could fix them.  People would have gotten upset of I broke
things at work. ;-)

R.I.P. Sun