Jonathan Speaks…
Jonathan sent a email to the company, the WSJ has reposted it here: Sun’s Schwartz Tries to Reassure His Troops in Email. The following amazes me... We’ve never walked away from the wholesale reinvention of business models, the redefinition of technology boundaries or the pursuit of new routes to market. Apparently there is no time like the present in which to start. Going on... We’ve never walked away from a challenge - ...
Sun Microsystems: R.I.P.
Sun's board has achieved its goal of whoring the company. The odd thing about it is that rather than selling to a hardware business such as IBM or HP or Dell or even Cisco, out of the blue came Oracle to seal the deal. So, if you haven't yet heard the news: "Sun and Oracle today announced a definitive agreement for Oracle to acquire Sun for $9.50 per share in cash. The Sun Board of Directors has unanimously approved the transaction. It is ...
OpenSolaris vs Nexenta: Distro Wars
OpenSolaris is drawing close to its 3rd distribution release. Nexenta is closed to releasing NCP 2. It's nearing the time to decide. Here are some of my thoughts in an attempt to stimulate the conversation after recently spending some time with both. Nexenta really is impressive. NCP is true to its name, its a core and nothing more. Despite that, if you're not a Windows...erm, I mean, GNOME, fan this simply means there is less crap ...
IBM/Sun Deal Dead
Ashlee Vance and Steve Lohr at the New York Times reported that I.B.M. Withdraws $7 Billion Offer for Sun Microsystems: "On Sunday, I.B.M.’s board decided to withdraw the offer." Read the article for (sketchy) details. Is this good or bad? For those of us who didn't think the acquisition was in the best interest of Sun's products and communities its positive, but regardless the article rightly quotes: “Sun is now sort of damaged ...
Solaris Loopback Crypto & Compression
Linux has always been in love with its loopback trickery for implementing compression and cryptography but a cry has gone out for similar capabilities in Solaris and those requests have been answered. The Solaris Loopback File driver (aka: LOFI) has supported compression for some time now, and as of snv_105 encryption has been added as well. LOFI Basics If your unfamiliar with LOFI, lets catch you up. LOFI is used for accessing a file ...
SGI Acquired by Rackable Systems Inc
Here is an example of why I hate April Fools: Rackable Systems Announces Agreement to Acquire Silicon Graphics Inc., and here is the press release by Rackable: RACKABLE SYSTEMS ANNOUNCES AGREEMENT TO ACQUIRE SILICON GRAPHICS INC.. A joke? No, apparently not, unless the SEC is in on it, here is the SEC Form 8-K filed today: SEC FORM 8-K RACKABLE SYSTEMS, INC. And so, the end of an era... finally and officially. SGI is dead, may she ...
OpenSolaris Election Results
It is done, the results are available: see the official results here. The Constitution did not pass... it was getting lots of votes as expected, however due to our massive number of non-active "members", we didn't get a majority. 218 Ayes, 31 Nays, and 22 Abstaining. A majority was required, which as 234 Ayes to pass. The good new is that the Nays and Abstentions really did matter, so this was community decided, not simply a result of ...
Sun & IBM: Speculation
The UNIX world is ablaze with speculation about the news that IBM wants to acquire Sun. Rumors of acquisition have been floating around for a long time, but the fact that institutional investors help almost double JAVA shares means we should take this one very seriously. To be frank, I'm not sure how to feel about it. I'll try and play both sides therefore. On one hand, IBM's hardware business has a great many advantages over Sun's. ...
OpenSolaris Election: Don’t forget to vote
Time is running out to vote in the OpenSolaris election. Go here to see how it works then cast that ballot. Remember, the new bastard Constitution is an effort to castrate our community. It requires changes to the Charter that won't be made until after its approved, which is illegal (the constitution must fulfill the charter, therefore you must change the charter first, and then the constitution). VOTE NO ON THE ILLEGAL, DESTRUCTIVE, ...
All I Want for Christmas….
I'm pretty sure I need this... The Cray CX1™ "personal" supercomputer. Its essentially a desk-side 8 blade enclosure that works with less than 15A on a 120V circuit. Awesome!! Besides, don't all us "old" UNIX guys miss the days of $100,000+ workstations? My Ferrari 430 Scuderia is gonna have to wait. Besides, I can't tell you how nice it is to once against think Cray is Cool.