AT&T Tech Support 360
- Related Stories
-
Sun to buy Tarantella
May 10, 2005 -
Sun to upgrade Linux desktop software
May 28, 2004 -
Red Hat aims desktop Linux at Microsoft
May 4, 2004 -
Sun, Ximian back Linux desktop
January 22, 2003 -
Sun gets fat on thin clients
December 19, 2002 -
Sun's Linux PC cheaper, McNealy says
September 18, 2002 -
Red Hat, Sun to boost desktop Linux
August 13, 2002
The Java Desktop System will continue to exist as a product, but now chiefly as software based on Sun's Solaris operating system and directed at programmers, John Loiacono, executive vice president of software, said at a meeting with reporters here at the JavaOne trade show.
"You're going to see less of an emphasis on JDS on Linux," Loiacono said. "The strategy has changed slightly."
That's a big change from three years ago, when Sun launched the project and Sun Chief Executive Scott McNealy touted JDS--then code-named Project Mad Hatter--as a combination of a server and Linux PCs that would be more cost-effective than Microsoft Windows. A server and 100 PCs would cost about $300,000 over five years, Sun said at the time. Later, the company revealed that JDS was based on Novell's Suse desktop Linux software.
"We think this is going to garner a lot of industry support," McNealy said of Mad Hatter in September 2002. "We believe we've got all the ducks lined up in the right direction."
It's possible the idea could resurface later, Gardner added. "I think Sun would love to convince a major (telecommunications service) carrier that providing a desktop format as a service is a great idea. JDS will probably be relegated to the back burner on simmer until the conditions are right for the carriers to do that."
Linux is popular on servers, but it's a hard sell for desktop computing, where Microsoft has a stronghold. Sun still has other efforts afoot in the market, however. One is its StarOffice software--a competitor to Microsoft Office and a close relative of the open-source OpenOffice.org. Another is its Sun Ray thin clients, which are display screens that rely on a central server to handle processing duties and that are being augmented with Windows abilities through Sun's acquisition of Tarantella.
One casualty of the JDS changes could be a partnership with the China Standard Software Co. (CSSC), a consortium of companies supported by the Chinese government, which Sun said in 2003 would adopt Sun's desktop Linux. "We're going to immediately roll out the Java Desktop System to between a half million and a million desktops in 2004. It makes us instantaneously the No. 1 Linux desktop play on the planet," McNealy said at the time.
It's not clear whether that milestone was met. CSSC has other options. In April, Novell announced a deal with CSSC to "cooperate to provide technology, services and marketing to optimize and promote Linux to the Chinese market."
See more CNET content tagged:
Sun Java Desktop System,
China Standard Software Co.,
Dana Gardner,
Sun Microsystems Inc.,
Scott McNealy
guess the mobsters Billy and Stevie (Gates/Balmer) got to Sun
and told them in no uncertain way that the Monopoly of
Windows must continue. How else could Windows survive with
its lower quality code.
You Windowzers better enjoy your ride with Bill. He will
continue to sell you trash as long as you suckers keep buying,
and laughing all the way to the bank.
Ignorance is bliss, though.
Sun has NO direction or vision. Every week there is yet another pronouncement of what Sun plans and how they are positioning the company for the future - and each pronouncement directly contradicts the previous ones...
News flash: *every* company alters its strategy. Continually. Now, I'm not a huge fan of Sun, but I know when someone's comment is unreasonably silly.