Not long ago, Bill Gates boasted that Linux threatened commercial Unix systems, like Solaris from Sun Microsystems, more than Microsoft Windows. Sun just happens to agree enough to announce the release of Solaris 10 for free. Anyone can download it. Anyone, except irrelevant Apple zombies, can use it. The move is Sun's way of stopping the bleeding which amounts to growing losses currently at $7 billion per year. Sun plans to release Solaris under an Open Source license.
Sun is making the best move it can. By giving away the operating system, they could manage to get most companies to put their servers back on Solaris. Corporations like dealing with corporations. Sun has a worldwide network of service and support that doesn't exist in commercial Linux distributions. Sun is unlikely to allow third party companies to compete with them on support or patches since they intend to make money off both. However, simply by being a giant corporation, Sun could attract enough developers to significantly hamper Linux development. Being a superior programmer in the Open Source scene won't necessarily catch anyone's attention but writing a superb application to expand the Solaris market could land a nice job at Sun.
Microsoft could open Windows 98 and utterly destroy Linux, Solaris, HP and anybody else hoping to make money with an operating system. Microsoft is the only company with nearly total market support for hardware and software. But Microsoft is bull-headed, myopic and hasn't made any friends over the years. While the angry graybeard Linux hippie can't provide financial incentive to back up his anti-Microsoft positions, Dell, Gateway, HP et al. can sit down with Sun and hammer out a plan to bring Solaris to the masses. Sun will offer Linux compatibility which will make Solaris very attractive.
Like Nixon going to China, Sun is the only company in a position to succeed in taking down the Microsoft Windows monoculture. IBM has been making money for years with Linux and Open Source but they stay strictly in hardware. IBM cheeses to recommend German Linux developer, SuSE, rather than get directly into the mosh pit and risk direct warfare with Microsoft. Big Blue has a valid excuse for avoiding an operating system battle with Microsoft. They suffered heavy losses in the early '90s trying to put OS/2 against Windows.
Solaris might not sound familiar to the average clone but the operating system is a bigger player in the corporate world than Microsoft. Under their new strategy, it would take record setting stupidity for Sun to fail to win back any corporate clients that left for Linux. Once that base is back under control, Microsoft will have a major problem on its plate. People are tired of upgrading. People are tired of Orwellian activation. People are tired of vulnerabilities that destroy their work and add fear to their computer experience. People are tired of spyware.
People are tired of Microsoft.
