Is the Sun Dimming?

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.

                            - Bob Dylan, The Times They Are A-Changing

I have many a times privately remarked to friends that Sun Microsystem's approach to the Free Software movement has been schizophrenic at best. Given Sun's considerable contributions to the Free Software community, this view may seem excessively harsh yet the facts do bear out the truth. Sun has certainly opened up the OpenOffice.org codebase under the popular LGPL, but this is followed by its CEO (COO in the past) Schwartz going on record to criticize the GPL as "a rather predatory obligation to disgorge all their IP back to the wealthiest nation in the world" [source]. Sun's tango-ing on the issue of free-ing the Java platform and it's obsessively tight control over the OpenSolaris platform have caused a negative flow of contributions (ideas moving out of the OpenSolaris codebase, but not inwards). Given Sun's strong engineering culture, its deep Unix roots and its support of free software in the past years, some of the positions taken by the top executives have been a cause of despair for those who see Sun being able to collaborate with the Free Software community in a constructive manner for both parties.

Despite all the hoopla Schwartz, Simon and other top Sun executives make about needing to protect Sun's "intellectual property"[1], it is clear to industry observers that such rhetoric is mainly aimed to appease Sun's shareholders, and that very few believe that Sun can credibly and legitimately be part of the Free Software movement and still have a strong "intellectual property" agenda. Putting the ideology and philosphy aside, the Free Software movement's greatest strength lies is in the network effect of sharing information and knowledge. The rapid advancement of free software packages in the last decade have had many contributing factors, but the ability of individuals to communicate, contribute and confluence trajectories of growth remain one of the defining characteristics of its success. And that fundamental characteristic is at complete and intractable odds with the absolute control that is defining hallmark of traditional intellectual rights regime.

Governer Tarkin: Princess Leia, before your execution, you will join me at a ceremony that will make this battle station operational. No star system will dare oppose the Emperor now.

Princess Leia: The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.

So, is the Sun's past dazzling past truely dimming? Are the star systems that were its dominion slipping through and establishing new empires of their own? I can almost imagine Linus hurtling in his embattled X-Wing, RMS appearing in a ghostly form and saying "Use the source, Linus", and Linus firing that memorable shot that completely annihilates the Death Star. As analogies go, the Death Star was Sun's proprietary business model, the memorable shot was the release of the 2.2 Linux kernel and cheap x86 hardware, and the resulting ka-boom you hear is Sun's annihilated value in the enterprise Unix space.

Yet, despite all the eye-rolling that commences when Schwarz and Scott McNealy rhetorize on why Sun is still  relevent in the 21st century, a  happy ending for Sun may actually still be possible. I personally like where Sun has been heading in last year, both from a business perspective as well as from a community perspective. Consider its strong involvement in ensuring that the OpenDocument Format is truly open and unencumbered. Consider that Schwartz finally seems to have grokked the importance of open standards in leveraging market adoption.  Consider that Sun is putting its weight behind the free software distribution Ubuntu for its hardware platform (it's earlier Linux JDS platform was based on the then closed Suse Linux platform). Schwartz, in a fundamental shift of strategies, has actually gone on to say that  "on the hardware we ship, I don't want to be Solaris only, because then I will just define my market to be smaller than the opportunity". Consider that Sun has finally decided to free its Java platform (although negotiations on the fine print is still ongoing between Sun and the free software community leaders). Consider that Sun is expanding its OpenSolaris program  in response to feedback received from community contributors. Consider that Sun is free-ing not just its software platform, but also its hardware platform ("Expanding SPARC beyond Solaris to Linux opens new markets for everyone." - source).

All of these are strong indicators that Sun has finally come to recognize that community engagement and opening the gates of innovation will lead to new market opportunities that Sun badly needs to monetize at this juncture. It's a risky move but at this point, Sun has little to lose. The line has been drawn, the curse has been cast, the times are surely are a-changin' and it is going to be an electrifying ride for Sun.

[1] If we had Millenium Prizes for Misnomers of the 20th Century, the phrase "intellectual property" would be leading the race to the finish line by a large margin.

Comments

[James Governor]

are you censoring comments? my last one didn't show up

[Hasan]

Hi James. Thanks for dropping by. Sorry your last comment didn't appear and I don't know what happened. As blog Owner, I had activated word banning for certain obscene words which I'm sure you didn't use and I banned one IP address, not yours, for trackback spam. Otherwise all posts here are open for comments. Will ask TypePad support. Hope this won't stop you from commenting here. Cheers!