Monday, May 26, 2003

Economist.com | The ponytail versus the penguin

Economist.com | The ponytail versus the penguin
"At first, Sun dismissed this threat. Then it tried to embrace Linux—offering its own cheap Intel-based servers running the free operating system. (Mr McNealy even dressed up as a penguin, the Linux mascot, at Sun's 2002 analyst meeting.) Yet the new computers were poorly received. Potential customers doubted that Sun was really serious about Intel-based machines.
So what is Mr Schwartz's new strategy? In San Francisco this week, Sun unveiled two new low-priced servers based on Intel chips. It also revealed that Oracle had agreed to make its software work on these machines—adding to speculation that Oracle is about to buy Sun. But much more significant was a subtle but crucial shift in the firm's Linux strategy: as well as Linux, Sun will now also push an Intel-compatible version of Solaris."

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