Sun CEO On Razors And Blades 233
Kadin2048 writes "In an interview with BusinessWeek online, Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy sheds some light on the company's new business model and future direction. In particular, he said that Sun's recent open source moves were part of a new strategy, where 'The software is the razor. The razor blades are the servers.' The move was called a huge risk by BusinessWeek, and it would put Sun at odds with the more traditional Microsoft-esque model with high per-seat or per-server software licensing costs and use commodity PCs and servers, which may not go over well with investors. But after having seen its stock slide and users flee for Linux and Windows, they arguably have little to lose. Perhaps the most interesting development to Slashdot readers is that in an effort to draw new developers to the platform, Sun is offering a deal that seems torn from a cell-phone company playbook: offering a "free" Ultra 20 Opteron workstation if you sign up for a $29.95/mo, 3-year service contract."
The future? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The future? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The future? (Score:2)
Re:The future? (Score:2)
OS X boots to the desktop on my Powerbook in 25 seconds
on my optimized kernel on ubuntu i boot certainly under 1 minute which is fast enough for software that didn't cost me a dime. and i haven't even started to optimize the services yet. apple has done that for you. if people would want a superfast booting ubuntu that doesn't do all the regular checks at bootup, it be almost as fast, certainly under 40 seconds.
an average raid card takes often longer than 25 seconds to initialize and check the proper wo
Component Hardware first then gravy (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Component Hardware first then gravy (Score:3, Informative)
Its $360 for the first year, and any additional hardware or upgrades are billed in the first installment beyond the base system price. This includes billing you for a keyboard if you order one!
How DARE they do this!!! (Score:4, Interesting)
Sun truly is 'going the Carly way' it seems. Stripmining their credibility to 'preserve stock value' for a bit longer.
Re:How DARE they do this!!! (Score:2)
I would really like to have an IPX format UltraSparc III system.
Even more if FreeBSD would support UltraSparc III!
Tomorrow, new Sun Fire Niagara with 8-core T1 CPU (Score:4, Insightful)
It makes me wonder why there must always be this gulf between hardware and software vendors. The most successful models meld them together handsomely into devices like iPods, mobile/pda devices, etc. This thick-thin shift is so insane. At the end of the day, we just want to do work, entertainment, and something useful with the devices we buy, and the location of what's going on is increasingly irrelevant. But perhpas this is what (F)OSS software will get for us, an army of coders coupled to an army of blade vendors, with dumb devices at the edge.
Re:Tomorrow, new Sun Fire Niagara with 8-core T1 C (Score:3, Interesting)
I disagree with the "dumb devices" bit; that's too cynical. We can have devices at the edge that are only as smart as they need to be. This enables tons of networked apps that can relay dynamic information: news, airline flight status, and so forth. Increasingly, these tools are built into clients that aren't even web browsers (e.g. RSS readers, OS X dashboard wid
Thick v thin (Score:3, Interesting)
To extend your checking flights metaphor, I can do this on my mobile, my PDA, my notebook, or a terminal somewhere I don't own (not that I would). Each device is running something different. The mobile runs Symbian; the PDA runs WinCE, the notebook runs MacOS, and only heaven knows what the public terminal has, probably a Windows session.
At the core on the thick side is (statistically, anyway) either Apache/Tomcat, or IIS/something r
Re:Thick v thin - "Behind the Curtain" (Score:2, Interesting)
At least in the telecom world there is a lot of that "behind the curtain" sneakiness that needs a lot of horsepower to make the stuff customers see work.
Just as an FYI, the digital world isn't all web servers talking to clients.
On the back-end B2B side there are seems to be more and more XML+HTTPS over private network links between a service provider (any service, think PayPal + X service for instance) and any number of external vendors. External vendors are doing anything from billing, to content deliv
Looks nice -- but there's a whole Opteron Line (Score:4, Interesting)
But Sun has a whole line of Opteron-based computers.
Does anyone have anything good/bad to say about their entry model, the X2100?
Here's the review I saw: http://anandtech.com/systems/showdoc.aspx?i=2530 [anandtech.com]
I like the idea that it is an off-the shelf minimal server.
Re:Looks nice -- but there's a whole Opteron Line (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Looks nice -- but there's a whole Opteron Line (Score:2)
Only caveats are some harmless ACPI notices during bootup, the predictably mostly-useless nForce 4 ethernet (the other's a perfectly fine Broadcom), and the not-quite-working nForce SATA hotswap; standard Tyan nForce 4 + FreeBSD fare.
Re:Note: putko's racism (Score:2)
Nice, but too expensive (Score:3, Insightful)
That is for the basic model. For something with real specs, 2GB ram, faster processor, and a Dual layer DVD burner, you have to pay a $1,800 premium.
For that money you can buy a Dual core 2.3 GHz Power G5 and have change left.
Your real profit here: The Apple looks a lot better, and is still cheaper.
For the sad design of this Sun box, they should charge Dell prices, this since they are competing with Dell with the Fire server line anyway.
Consider: (Score:5, Insightful)
Without any hardware whatsoever.
Re:Consider: (Score:2)
Re:Nice, but too expensive (Score:2)
Dual core G5? Oh you mean the end of life PPC Macintosh...
So I guess it is between HP, Sun and IBM for major server vendors that sell Opteron servers. Well HP/Compaq is out of the question because they are in Microsoft's back pocket and they will kill any serious threat to that market. Just look at what their view of Blue-Ray i
Re:Nice, but too expensive (Score:3, Informative)
That said, if I had it to do over today, I'd get a 20" iMac.
It is quiet (Score:2)
The Sun IDE is IIRC downloadable from java.sun.com for free with the J2EE suite.
This kind of comparisson usually comes down to who has more performance per $. The added value of software suites, and ergonomics will become more important in the next years. I have m
Re:Nice, but too expensive (Score:2)
Model that fits... (Score:2)
while we're going with the analogy (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, right. (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, come on, we can see right through that. It's just another sleazy attempt by Sun to acquire money in exchange for goods and services.
The nerve.
Bitch all you want. The Ultra 20 is incredible. (Score:5, Insightful)
* 3 year warranty on both hardware AND software (for which you have to pay extra with just about all other vendors)
* One of the most mature operating systems out there
* One of the most mature 64-bit operating systems out there (TRUE 64 bit)
* The only commercial system that is certified to run the three (arguably) most popular operating systems - Windows, Solaris, and Red Hat
Considering all of those factors, I still consider the Ultra 20 to be a hell of a bargain.
The only catch is that is it NOT $29.95 per month. You pay in three annual installments. I posted an open letter to Sun on a web site that I write for criticizing them for continually advertising $29.95 a month when they actually do not offer such financing. Jonathan Schwartz actually responded to it on his blog stating that financing and legal are the slowest segments of any corporation to respond to new ideas and that the Ultra 20's marketing was rushed. Just an FYI on that.
Still, I'd have that Ultra 20 replace my Sun Blade 100 at home in an instant if I had the finances at the moment.
Re:Bitch all you want. The Ultra 20 is incredible. (Score:2, Interesting)
The best part of a three-year contract is that the company is betting that it won't see t
Re:Bitch all you want. The Ultra 20 is incredible. (Score:2)
Re:Bitch all you want. The Ultra 20 is incredible. (Score:5, Insightful)
Am I supposed to care? In fact, is anyone supposed to care? If you want the UltraSPARC line, Sun still has high-end workstations to take care of that as well as ALL of their mid-range and high-end servers. They're all UltraSPARC driven. I love this system for numerous reasons, not the least of which is that the Ultra 20 supports my two favorite underdogs - Sun and AMD.
The hypocrisy on Slashdot is amazing. We all scream and cheer with "It's about time" at the announcement that Dell might sell AMD hardware. But with Sun, suddenly the attitude is "{nose in air} Well! It's NOT an UltraSPARC! Hrmph! Peasantry!"
Re:Bitch all you want. The Ultra 20 is incredible. (Score:2, Insightful)
I agree with SGI. SGI's performed poorly and were just generic pc's with ok graphics cards and were expensive. Sun's offerings are not bad and solaris is really nice for those who need uptime. If sun can pull it off then great.
Re:Bitch all you want. The Ultra 20 is incredible. (Score:2)
Re:Bitch all you want. The Ultra 20 is incredible. (Score:2)
Wake up when I can get a Niagra-based workstation for a few grand. make -j 32, mmmm. But somehow I have a feeling they'll cost a fortune so I'll never get one. Anyways I need some FLOPS with my IOPS. Perhaps the perfect workstation of 2006 will be a $100K Niagra box with a $300 PS3 math coprocessor :)
Re:Bitch all you want. The Ultra 20 is incredible. (Score:2)
You're not very good at being a troll. (Score:3, Informative)
You cannot compare new items to grey/aftermarket for many reasons, not the least of which is because of warranty. There is not one liquidator or after-market reseller that will offer anything like a 3 year warranty on parts and software for an item which obviously is not theirs. (I'm quite sure that no aftermarket reseller is owned by Sun.) To put those units under a three-year warranty with Sun, it might have to be recertifie
The razor blades are the servers? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:The razor blades are the servers? (Score:2)
Is that whole razor/blade plan a good idea? (Score:2)
But, does that business model actually work? I mean, for razors?
I mean, when I go to the store to get more blades, I always forget what specific type of handle I have. It's not something I really spend the effort to commit to memory. So I just don't buy new cartridges, putting it off until next time.
Or, I just buy the disposable safety razors instead, which are cheaper anyway. Having to remember
Razors and egos (Score:3, Interesting)
Back in the 19th century, all men shaved with straight razors. Then in 1905 King Gilette patented a disposable-blade razor [about.com]. It was called a "safety razor" purely for marketting reasons. Its main selling point was that you never had to sharpen the blade — when it got dull you just threw it out and bought a new one.
And yes, they did sell the handles at a l
Re:Razors and egos (Score:3, Insightful)
It's the other way around. They are giving away the software (open sourcing it) with the intention of making money on, presumably, well built hardware. It makes sense, since there is room for innovation in big server instal
Re:Razors and egos (Score:2)
As with those Gilette razors, the product doesn't stand or fall on little pricing/marketing gimmicks. What matter is the basic value it creates for the customer. Sun hardware is superior, but not superior enough to justify its cost. And playing games with the way you sell the hardware isn't going to c
Re:Razors and egos (Score:2)
You're probably right; in the razor-and-blades analogy it would be like buying Schick cartridges just so you could get to use their awesome rubber-padded handle.
However, the value is in the innovative hardware that Sun is traditionally good at. I can see customers buying the hardware for its quality, and the awes
Re:Razors and egos (Score:2)
Re:Razors and egos (Score:2)
Which might be the case a la Google, but in that case, the blades as it were need to be cheap or somehow locked into the razor, which in SUNs case neither applies...
Tired of overused analogies (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Tired of overused analogies (Score:2)
"Razor and Blade?!? They're flakes!"
"They're Elite!"
(see userid... making fun of my name is on topic for once!!)
~Will
Styptic? (Score:2, Funny)
What is the styptic pencil, then?
Re:Styptic? (Score:2)
Software Bundle? (Score:2)
is quite ridiculous, considering that if you visit their website you will notice that it is already free ;-)
http://developers.sun.com/prodtech/devtools/free/ [sun.com]
Cheers,
Adolfo
PS. I wonder if they have fixed the swing clear type issues.
Sun CEO on razors and blades (Score:2, Funny)
Fuck Everything, We're Doing Open Source (Score:5, Funny)
Bonus I told you so (Score:2)
Published Jun. 6, 2004
Servers are the razors also? (Score:4, Interesting)
Given Sun's business acumen the last decade, I expect them to start giving that away too. Not that I'd be happy about that. Competition is good, so competitors shooting themselves in the foot is bad.
Better Check the Fine Print (Score:2, Funny)
Here are some of the cellphone-like terms from that contract:
- Service plan includes up to 1 Trillion CPU instructions per month, absolutely free.
- Extra CPU instructions are billed at $0.08/Billion peak, $0.03/Billion nights and weekends.
- Free instructions do not include floating-point operations. All floating point instr
This has been obvious for years, Scott (Score:2)
Sun webstore offer on Ultra 20 (Score:2)
Goddamn. This nearly had me fall off my chair. Then I went to SUN's site and realised that this offer is for the US customers only and not applicable to EU customers
Give them credit here for this (Score:3, Insightful)
Message to Sun, if you want more IT people on your hardware and software, you need to make it easier for people to gain those skills (you have just made it easier to gain the hardware). Books only go so far, you have to play with it, learn it and use it to know it. I'm interested in learning Sun, but no *nix shop is going to let me in the door no matter how many years of IT experience I have with just a book education. People want education, so make it easier for the lay person to afford it, ok?
The best advocate for your product is the IT person. The best way to get the advocate is to make sure that the IT person can learn you product. I've been looking for a reasonably affordable option to get trained on Sun for years, most IT people can't talk their contract house into paying for your clases. Novell, Microsoft and Novell all have readily available classes in community colleges and the like, Sun, where are you?
Re:Give them credit here for this (Score:2, Informative)
As for the teach yourself route, their online documentation at docs.sun.com is actually pretty good. You could also subscribe to the ACM for a hundred bucks or so, which gets you free access to a bunch of Sun's online training for Solaris, Java, and many of the software packages they're now giving away (see http://pd.acm.org/full_listing2.cfm [acm.org] ).
Re:Give them credit here for this (Score:2)
Re:Give them credit here for this (Score:2)
My point stands, the training th
Sneaky way to get all of the payment up front (Score:4, Informative)
Make sure you check the expiration date on your card before you order!
In a related story. . . (Score:2)
But is Sun hardware good enough? (Score:4, Interesting)
But now there's OpenSolaris, and OpenSolaris is being ported to IBM RISC hardware at no cost to IBM. IBM will then be able to pick it up, polish it, offer support contracts, and provide you with a complete Solaris-on-quality-RISC solution, without a dime going to Sun.
I'm not saying it will happen, but it's certainly a reasonable possibility, something Sun should have a plan for in its business case. If IBM starts offering Solaris-on-RISC, how is Sun going to avoid losing market share -- and thus resources for further development -- to IBM? What's its differentiator?
In short, does Sun actually have a plan? Or is it in "We must do something; this is something; therefore we must do it!" mode?
Re:But is Sun hardware good enough? (Score:2)
For the LOVE OF GOD, what is Sun's target market? (Score:2)
There's only one problem -- Sun's market isn't small businesses (small IT). Sun's market isn't medium-sized IT, either. Sun's market is only large enterprise... which is dominated by Windows and (now) Linux. Could someone correct me if this is not the case?
Whether in business or pleasure, I have really wanted to use Sun stuff... I really do. I ju
At last! Unbelievable! (Score:2)
With everyone going all comodity and even Apple switching to x86, with computers powerfull enough for allmost any job this little visual detail stuff is more important than ever.
If they actually manage to build an market a solid x86 setup that earns itself a reputation for stability and bottleneck-free x86 performance
Re:At last! Unbelievable! (Score:2)
"which may not go over well with investors." (Score:2)
See, the money men can't comprehend the concept - so it must be bad.
This is Bill Gates' thinking.
Much as I think Sun is doomed no matter what it does, I give kudos to the company for at least trying, as opposed to Microsoft that will NEVER understand what is going on as long as Gates and his henchmen are running the company.
Re:"which may not go over well with investors." (Score:2)
Microsoft's market cap: $300 billion and profitable
Sun's market cap: $14 billion and bleeding money
Now look at the balance sheets. I can only assume you have some strange definition of "understanding what's going on" that the rest of the market doesn't use.
Dunno... (Score:2)
It costs around 800 for a dual AMD x2 4200 with 1 gig ram and same HD and Nvidia 5200 if you shop on pricewatch.
But you do get 3 years of support for hardware and software. 360 out of pocket now, but id have to upgrade the GFX card right away.
Re:a free WHAT? (Score:2, Insightful)
Still a half-decent deal.
Re:a free WHAT? (Score:4, Informative)
Wrong several times over... (Score:4, Informative)
Second, an Ultra 20 Opteron does not mean 20 Opterons, it means a workstation model 20 with one processor.
So, while reasonable, not nearly incredible.
Re:Wrong several times over... (Score:2)
Re:Last Ditch Attempt (Score:2, Informative)
Razor == cheap, Blades == expensive.
Or, in Sun-speak:
Software == cheap, Servers == expensive.
Which pretty much correlates with what Sun have been doing recently.
Amusingly, Sun also sell blades, of the server type
Re:Razor/blade model updated : inkjet printer (Score:2)
The real problem with the inkjet model is companies like PrintPal.com - where I buy ink cartridges that would cost $30 from Epson for $6. I don't know how PrintPal can stay in business with those prices, but they've held out for a couple years now. The only reason Epson keeps making a profit on their ink cartridges is that most people don't realize (or don't care) that there are cheaper sources.
If you're going to do open source, your business model had better be smart or you will run into trouble keeping yo
Re:Website and RAID (Score:2, Insightful)
Wow. How the Internet doth spoil the impatient.
WTF? MOD PARENT BACK UP!! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Website and RAID (Score:2)
Sun computer from a Sun reseller but generally speaking - at
least for their Sparc products - they charge too much. You
can get their computers cheaper elsewhere. Again this might
not be for the X86 products. I have never priced them at
Sun and at someone else.
Re:For How Long Though? (Score:2)
How the heck can they enforce that? If the company is running a hacked version of ypbind behind closed doors and a firewall, how is Sun going to know? Are they psychic? }:)
-Z
Re:For How Long Though? (Score:2)
Re:For How Long Though? (Score:2)
Re:For How Long Though? (Score:2)
The company I was working for a few years ago had a large-scale cluster of Solaris x86 boxes, a couple of E4500s, some WinNT stuff, and a few smaller 1U sun boxes (forget the model offhand).
The Solaris x86 boxes had nasty issues with the default threading libraries (that was a HARD problem to track down, and if I didn't have a friend at Sun it would've taken a lot longer). As a side note, that little threading issue had a tendency to take boxes completely offline every hour o
The answer is... (Score:2)
Re:Sun's spiral of doom (Score:5, Insightful)
Open sourcing their software portfolio generates a large base of developers that contribute to the quality of the products and maybe they will even reccomend Sun hardware to their CIO. It is really no different than OpenOffice.org. Basically you get a huge amount of goodwill assosiated with your brand. Then you can sell hardware and support. The big customers will not consider buying the software without the support contracts. This model has proven to work for companies like Redhat, Mysql, Suse and others as well.
Re:Sun's spiral of doom (Score:2)
Yeah, not to mention... where do you go if you want to buy heavy hardware? If you need 86 processors in one machine? You can build a cluster, but you're probably going to spend what Sun would charge you for a sunfire 15k, by the time you spent the time on a consultant, rewrote and tested your hardware, bought your myrianet or whatever high-speed transport, and got it all running.
Not to mention - there's still a need for machines with 8 or 12 procs, and not to many companies selling them. Certainly none w
Re:Sun's spiral of doom (Score:2)
Oh really? [ibm.com]
Re:Sun's spiral of doom (Score:2)
Oh yeah and the p5 procs are dualcore as well so I'll have 64 cores.
Re:Sun's spiral of doom (Score:2)
Sun has little goodwill as it is with the open source community.
Re:Sun's spiral of doom (Score:2)
Re:Sun's spiral of doom (Score:2, Interesting)
Well, Sun's Open Source credibility is increasing. Now that they've decided to open source everything, it will only improve more.
Only if they refrain from further schzoid episodes. This week they like Open Source and are ready to compete with products rather than lawyers. Next week, they could be threatening the Harmony project and making subtle patent threats. You never really know where you will stand with Sun next month, next year, or even tomorrow.
If they hold their present course and keep the
Re:Sun's spiral of doom (Score:2)
Well, I would say that once they opensource all their software, there's really no turning back. They cannot say, "just kidding". It's all done and out there. The new COO (Johnathan Schwartz) seems to be 100% for open source. I really don't see them turning back now.
Re:Sun's spiral of doom (Score:2)
I do not think this word "proven" means what you think it means. MySQL is still burning venture capital. Suse lost money before being swallowed by Novell, which loses money on Linux. RedHat has only been in the black only since 2003.
Re:Sun's spiral of doom (Score:2)
Didn't that coincide with them no longer giving away their core product? ie: with RHEL, you have to buy it unless you'd be happy using CentOS. Funny how developing and then giving away free operating systems tends to generate little revenue.
Re:Not so much (Score:2)
Nice troll. The CDDL is the same as the Mozilla Public License (MPL) [sun.com]. Everyone loves Mozilla for being open source, but they rail on the CDDL at every available opportunity. Why?
Re:Sun's spiral of doom (Score:2)
Re:Sun's spiral of doom (Score:2, Interesting)
This is really narrow minded analysis. There are many industries for which thin clients are the perfect solution, call centers being the easiest example. Sun never said that the future would be only thin clients. There are lots of situations where I use a "computer" where I either don't care if it's a full PC or hope that it isn't. The automated registration kiosks at airports a
Re:Sun's spiral of doom (Score:2)
Are there niches? Yep. Is sun a company that can survive in present circumstances as a niche company? Nope.
Re:erm... (Score:2)
Re:First thought on reading the title... (Score:2)
Jesus, what's
Freaking n00bs, it almost seems like all the other posters actually RTFA - this is slashdot, we don't do that here
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