[Salo]

Grist, mill. Attack! Sorry about the excerpt - it's mandatory.

[Salo]

Pinging Dr. Penguin.

[skeeter]

I hope the Chinese rob him blind.

[Charlotte Corday]

Interesting. Hard to imagine any of the MS-worshiping Freepers having a problem with this:

1 - not likely to be any national defense secrets in open source software

2 - If MS software is so much better for productivity than the Linux based stuff, this deal has to hurt the Chinese economy in the long run, right ? ;-)

3 - 200 million Linux desktops will provide a fertile ground to "prove" than Linux really is just as vulnerable as Windows to the script kiddies.

[Golden Eagle]

As a Sun customer I must say I was extremely disapointed to hear this. I did not contact them today but will tomorrow to express my concern. Not in a political context, but as a longtime customer who feels that Sun has lost it's focus and likelihood of remaining true to it's vision.

This indicates Sun is much more vulnerable than I had previously thought. They have seen losses in the Billions to foreign and/or free Linux, but still maintained sales in the billions and were investing heavily in R&D.

But this shows a strategic shift towards Linux that I'm sure was a hard decision for Scott McNealy and one he's still unhappy about. He's finally giving in to the thought of the 'service only' line of business since for $50 a client he's barely paying for distribution.

It's obviously a troubling time there and I'm very disapointed to admit it, especially since the rabid linux zealots that cruse internet boards everywhere are already celebrating.

But the bottom line is this - China is going to get outfitted with some of America's best services for pratical pennies on the dollar of what we could have gotten from them if Linux didn't exist. Sun will limp along while their Unix business dies (baring a win from SCO that slows Linux adoption somewhat) now beholden to the Red Chinese government who will surely dump Sun as soon as their own Red Flag Linux company learns how to succesfully setup a services division.

It's a sad day when one of America's best tech companies is even allowed to build up the infrastructure of a potential communist enemy. It's an ever sadder day when they only got $50 million for doing it.

[sixmil]

SUN is a has been and StarOffice isn't even worth $50. China is a good place for them to pasture.