Screed-Counterscreed
And for the absolute opposite point of view from mine below, see Russell Beatie: Is anyone else *astounded* by the announcements coming out of the Sun Network event in San Francisco? I really am. From what I’ve heard and seen so far, Sun is really doing what it needs to do to both change their business model and communicate (read: market) their message.
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I thought that it was just an update of Star Office – with the added bonus of a yearly licensing fee (like Microsoft).
here\’s this from eweek:
For the desktop, Sun is likely to announce release plans for the Mad Hatter collection of productivity applications. This would include, among other things, a screen interface based on the GNOME interface developed by open-source proponents; a browser based on the Mozilla reference architecture; and, of course, Sun\’s long-promoted StarOffice, based on standards developed by Openoffice.org and intended as a close-to-free alternative to Microsoft\’s suite of Office applications, including a spreadsheet, word processor and presentation program.
For the server, McNealy and Sun will describe a \”fully integrated suite\” of Web, application and operating system software that it has developed in its Project Orion. The Orion package will include directory, identity management, messaging, calendar, portal, clustering, authentication and security software.
my take:
Orion = Vaporware
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From other news today, it turns out that
Project Orion = Sun Java System
Sun Java System = Sun Java Enterprise System + Sun Java Desktop System + Sun Java Studio Enterprise + some other junk
Mad Hatter = Sun Java Desktop System = Sun\’s distro of Linux for desktop use, comes bundled with Star Office and bunch of other stuff. $100 per seat, or $50 per employee, if you also have the Enterprise system.
Sun Java Enterprise System = Access to as many copies of any Sun server side components as you need, for $100 per employee per year. An extra $10 per employee per year gets you 24×7 support. I\’m not sure what components they make, or if they\’re any good. I know at least there\’s at least a full J2EE server in there.
Sun Java Studio Enterprise = Access to all Sun\’s developer tools. $5 per employee, if you have Enterprise system.
Basically they\’re taking every product they have, as well as support and some limited migration help, and splitting it into several bundles, which they want to rent to you on a cost per employee per year basis. $165 per employee per year gets you just about everything.
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That\’s pretty cheapo compared to micro-sux.. we have sql server over here, and they charge you like $60,000 per processor per person per second per location. Their licensing doesn\’t make a whole lot of sense.