[Info-vax] New CEO of VMS Software

Dan Cross cross at spitfire.i.gajendra.net
Sun Jan 7 17:51:38 EST 2024


In article <unf477$1748d$3 at dont-email.me>,
Arne Vajhøj  <arne at vajhoej.dk> wrote:
>On 1/7/2024 2:47 PM, Dan Cross wrote:
>> In article <memo.20240107190811.16260s at jgd.cix.co.uk>,
>> John Dallman <jgd at cix.co.uk> wrote:
>>> Cut back their hardware development, since it was expensive, making their
>>> systems even less competitive.
>> 
>> Yes.  They really missed the boat on x86.
>
>Solaris has been available for x86 since 1993.
>
>But I don't think there were that much customer
>interest in the x86 and later x86-64 version of Solaris.
>
>And there were not much money in it for Sun, because
>the system manufacturer (IBM/HP/Dell/whoever) would get most
>of the money.
>
>So few customers for a product that the vendor preferred
>customers did not pick.

Yes.  The suggestion was that Sun should have jetisoned SPARC
earlier, and refocused on x86 for their workstation and server
market.  Solaris for x86 was ok as far as it went, but not
really competitive and, lacking institutional investment from
Sun, remained rather niche until the OpenSolaris split.  But as
I said earlier, by then it was too little too late.

On the other hand, had they offered an _open source_ Solaris in
1993, or even open source SunOS 4 (recall that Larry McVoy's
"sourceware" proposal was publicized in 1993), coupled with an
x86-based workstation priced competitively, the world would
likely be a very different place.  People within Sun had already
started to see the trend and realized that, long term, SPARC was
not going to be cost competitive.

	- Dan C.




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