Sun launched an ad campaign on Wednesday in The Wall Street Journal and The San Jose Mercury News that highlighted IBM's licensing dispute with SCO and encouraged IBM AIX customers to switch to Sun Solaris. As part of the campaign, Sun is offering two days of free consulting and a "trade-in" on IBM servers.

Read Sun seeks to capitalize on SCO suit.

Check out news.com's Big picture on the SCO circus.

I find this latest stunt by SUN really distasteful. I don't condone stealing copyrighted code, but until the final outcome is decided in court, IBM is innocent until proven guilty. The fact that SUN is trying to capitalize on this shows just how desperate they are.

Michael

//The fact that SUN is trying to capitalize...

Uh, last time I checked Sun, IBM and others are operating in a captialistic system. If Sun doesn't capitalize on opportunities, they will lose.

I like what I have seen from Sun over the past couple of months. They are stepping up with low-cost servers and aggressively pushing Java.

Why are you so eager to defend IBM?

I do not see anything wrong with Sun. Sun uses the word "problem":
"Unfortunately, our friends in Blue have a problem with licensing contracts that could make things very expensive for anyone running AIX,". Yes, it is a problem, regardless of the result. If we review this issue, Sun is smarter. Sun paid $100M for all rights, but, IBM did not. And, probably, IBM has helped Linux a lot. Of course, SCO has to prove it. IBM keeps low profile on this issue so far....

I have no sympathy for folks who claim "how low can Sun go". Quit whining and welcome to the real world. IBM would've done the same thing. I hope SCO wins the lawsuit, too many folks have jumped on the freebie bandwagon without pausing to realise the consequences (including the much vaunted Linus Torvalds who thinks he can get away by claiming to be ignorant of patents). Sheesh.

too many folks have jumped on the freebie bandwagon
I'll bite! If I spend my time writing gpl SW, am I some kind of freeloader? Have I jumped on the freebie bandwagon? The idea is to develop good software in cooperation with a community. The result is great software! The proof is out there. We are having a great time doing what we like, and it pays at so many levels. No we dont get $ in hand as soon as someone uses our SW, but we can do the stuff we like, when we like it and the way we like it! You dont have to jump on the freebie bandwagon and I dont think anyone will miss your participation ;)

Just like any other commercial company aiming for a profit. After all, if I were in Sun's shoes, I'd like to find any way I could to stick it to IBM.

Check out this article on Forbes for a singular reason why... :
Patently Absurd

From the article:

"OK," he said, "maybe you don't infringe these seven patents. But we have 10,000 U.S. patents. Do you really want us to go back to Armonk [IBM headquarters in New York] and find seven patents you [Sun Microsystems] do infringe? Or do you want to make this easy and just pay us $20 million?"

How can U blame SUN they are playing cheap...
They Sell softwares free and open...
And more over they are open to the market , rather close like Microsoft or IBM
As a Matter of Fact dear this is Jungle... where fittest and most Agile can survive...thats what the SUN is doing and hope even if IBM was in this place they would have done the same......
Think about it.....

sco-vs-ibm

I just read the OSI Position Paper. It is a well written (in-progress) paper with solid references. I suggest anyone who want to seriously comment on the SCO vs IBM case should read this paper, learn what they can from it, think about it, and then respond.

Personally, I think Sun should be careful with their ad campaigns. What Caldera/SCO is trying to do could negatively effect them. Especially if they want to sell Intel based Unix (Solaris or Linux) servers.

Business as usual. But it doesn't mean that I like it.
SCO will lose big time. The main stock holders (used to be) have cashed almost all there's to gain. Stock price has started to fall and will hit the bottom within a month or two when the rest of the world realises that there's nothing concrete behind those threats.

Just think how many lines or ideas has MS copied to their IIS from the Apache? How many lines of Linux code has been copied to SCO's systems? I think there's not an operating system that hasn't somehow benefited from linux (codewise not econimicalwise).

Pardon my english on those long sentences. It's Midsummer's Eve (02:30) here in Finland, the weather is cold and after the morning no more stupid duelling until next monday.

Have a nice weekend! :-)

> SCO will lose big time. The main stock holders (used to be) have cashed almost all there's to gain. Stock price has started to fall and will hit the bottom within a month or two when the rest of the world realises that there's nothing concrete behind those threats.

I am not sure who will win.

> Just think how many lines or ideas has MS copied to their IIS from the Apache? How many lines of Linux code has been copied to SCO's systems? I think there's not an operating system that hasn't somehow benefited from linux (codewise not econimicalwise).

If MS were broght to a court and lost. MS would pay nothing: there is no damage. Apache is free. Same with SCO. They may be forced to show Apache's copyright statement. That is all. Legal issues are not moral issues.
Do not get me wrong: I do not love MS. IIS needs about 50 patches a year. It is garbge.

When is the last time Sun has a clear path. Network is computer and then build Desktops. Linux - Never, No, Cannot, Not For Server, Only on Desktop, Only for star office. IntelX86 - yes,no, may be. IBM has always been consistent in technology direction. While from a business point of view Sun is not wrong in targeting IBM, they will not succeed maximum it will slow their slide.

If you are talking about Mad Hatter, it happens to be Network Computing.

> Linux - Never, No, Cannot, Not For Server, Only on Desktop, Only for star office. IntelX86 - yes,no, may be.

Like any other company, Sun needs to cater to what the customer wants.

> IBM has always been consistent in technology direction.

Oh Yeah !!!!! Pls count the number of hardware and OS lines that IBM sells.