Oracle the world’s largest enterprise software company recent proposed acquisition of Sun Microsystems (makers of Java) in a deal worth $7.4 bn is the subject of an anti-trust investigation by the European Commission (EC). The merger of these two American (well, global companies), has already been cleared by the US Department of Justice (DoJ). So are the Europeans flexing their veto muscle just because they can?

Well, it is not usually so cut and dried. Firstly in the past 5 years, Orcale has gone on a major acquisition binge. In less than 5 years, it bought more than 50 enterprise software companies including Peoplesoft for $10bn, Sibel Systems for $6bn, and BEA for $8bn. That is on average, buying more than 10 companies a year!!!!  or roughly one every month! In the process, Orcale more than doubled their revenues and profits.

Well as the saying goes, “if you can’t beat them, join them” I think Oracle’s version might as well be, “if you can’t beat them, buy them“

So perhaps it is right for the EC to pay close attention as any future lack of competition for Oracle will not only stifle innovation but punish the consumers in the long run.

The problem is Sun Microsystems is losing $100m every month whilst the Europeans ponder the deal. IBM and HP have been poaching Sun’s customers since the deal was announced in April as the future of Sun remains uncertain. According to the EC,  “The database market is highly concentrated with the three main competitors of proprietary databases – Oracle, IBM and Microsoft – controlling roughly 85 percent of the market in terms of revenue”. Oracle is the market leader in proprietary databases, while Sun’s MySQL database product is the leading open source database. The Oracle databases and Sun’s MySQL “compete directly in many sectors of the database market and MySQL is widely expected to represent a greater competitive constraint as it becomes increasingly functional,” the EC added.

“Just one piece stands out as an anomaly, Oracle will almost surely spin out or kill the MySQL business Sun acquired that sells free database software for Linux systems” said  Rick Merrit of the EE Times.

When news of the EC inquiry was made public, the DoJ shot out a press release expressing their disappointment which not only puts the DoJ in an awkward position but according to the Wall Street Journal, “is an unusually public display of disagreement for the Obama Administration, which has been stressing its cooperative ties with the Europe, on everything from climate change to the war.”

The deal has already been approved by Sun’s shareholders.

I guess the big question is, does the anti-trust ruling protect competition or competitors?

David Wong’s Two Cents – The Americans have a vested interest in ensuring their companies are in a ‘dominant’ worldwide position and with the current economic climate such a merger would definitely not hinder their objectives. The Europeans on the other hand have always hidden behind a ‘veil of socialism’ and used anti-trust ruling to ‘layeth the smack down’ on companies deemed to be getting to powerful. DWTC says -The deal will go through, Europeans will lay down some stipulations like they always do  (probably regarding MySQL and possible structural and behavioural restrictions).

VirtualBox adalah suatu tools yang dibuat oleh Sun Microsystem untuk membuat Virtual Machine.
Bila ada yang membutuhkan VirtualBox, dapat mendownload di

http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/

Selamat menggunakan….

Scientists Worry Machines May Outsmart Man

This personal robot plugs itself in when it needs a charge. Servant now, master later?

A robot that can open doors and find electrical outlets to recharge itself. Computer viruses that no one can stop. Predator drones, which, though still controlled remotely by humans, come close to a machine that can kill autonomously.

Impressed and alarmed by advances in artificial intelligence, a group of computer scientists is debating whether there should be limits on research that might lead to loss of human control over computer-based systems that carry a growing share of society’s workload, from waging war to chatting with customers on the phone.

Their concern is that further advances could create profound social disruptions and even have dangerous consequences.

As examples, the scientists pointed to a number of technologies as diverse as experimental medical systems that interact with patients to simulate empathy, and computer worms and viruses that defy extermination and could thus be said to have reached a “cockroach” stage of machine intelligence.

While the computer scientists agreed that we are a long way from Hal, the computer that took over the spaceship in “2001: A Space Odyssey,” they said there was legitimate concern that technological progress would transform the work force by destroying a widening range of jobs, as well as force humans to learn to live with machines that increasingly copy human behaviors.

The researchers — leading computer scientists, artificial intelligence researchers and roboticists who met at the Asilomar Conference Grounds on Monterey Bay in California — generally discounted the possibility of highly centralized superintelligences and the idea that intelligence might spring spontaneously from the Internet. But they agreed that robots that can kill autonomously are either already here or will be soon.

They focused particular attention on the specter that criminals could exploit artificial intelligence systems as soon as they were developed. What could a criminal do with a speech synthesis system that could masquerade as a human being? What happens if artificial intelligence technology is used to mine personal information from smart phones?

The researchers also discussed possible threats to human jobs, like self-driving cars, software-based personal assistants and service robots in the home. Just last month, a service robot developed by Willow Garage in Silicon Valley proved it could navigate the real world.

A report from the conference, which took place in private on Feb. 25, is to be issued later this year. Some attendees discussed the meeting for the first time with other scientists this month and in interviews.

The conference was organized by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, and in choosing Asilomar for the discussions, the group purposefully evoked a landmark event in the history of science. In 1975, the world’s leading biologists also met at Asilomar to discuss the new ability to reshape life by swapping genetic material among organisms. Concerned about possible biohazards and ethical questions, scientists had halted certain experiments. The conference led to guidelines for recombinant DNA research, enabling experimentation to continue.

The meeting on the future of artificial intelligence was organized by Eric Horvitz, a Microsoft researcher who is now president of the association.

Dr. Horvitz said he believed computer scientists must respond to the notions of superintelligent machines and artificial intelligence systems run amok.

The idea of an “intelligence explosion” in which smart machines would design even more intelligent machines was proposed by the mathematician I. J. Good in 1965. Later, in lectures and science fiction novels, the computer scientist Vernor Vinge popularized the notion of a moment when humans will create smarter-than-human machines, causing such rapid change that the “human era will be ended.” He called this shift the Singularity.

This vision, embraced in movies and literature, is seen as plausible and unnerving by some scientists like William Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems. Other technologists, notably Raymond Kurzweil, have extolled the coming of ultrasmart machines, saying they will offer huge advances in life extension and wealth creation.

“Something new has taken place in the past five to eight years,” Dr. Horvitz said. “Technologists are replacing religion, and their ideas are resonating in some ways with the same idea of the Rapture.”

The Kurzweil version of technological utopia has captured imaginations in Silicon Valley. This summer an organization called the Singularity University began offering courses to prepare a “cadre” to shape the advances and help society cope with the ramifications.

“My sense was that sooner or later we would have to make some sort of statement or assessment, given the rising voice of the technorati and people very concerned about the rise of intelligent machines,” Dr. Horvitz said.

The A.A.A.I. report will try to assess the possibility of “the loss of human control of computer-based intelligences.” It will also grapple, Dr. Horvitz said, with socioeconomic, legal and ethical issues, as well as probable changes in human-computer relationships. How would it be, for example, to relate to a machine that is as intelligent as your spouse?

Dr. Horvitz said the panel was looking for ways to guide research so that technology improved society rather than moved it toward a technological catastrophe. Some research might, for instance, be conducted in a high-security laboratory.

The meeting on artificial intelligence could be pivotal to the future of the field. Paul Berg, who was the organizer of the 1975 Asilomar meeting and received a Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1980, said it was important for scientific communities to engage the public before alarm and opposition becomes unshakable.

“If you wait too long and the sides become entrenched like with G.M.O.,” he said, referring to genetically modified foods, “then it is very difficult. It’s too complex, and people talk right past each other.”

Tom Mitchell, a professor of artificial intelligence and machine learning at Carnegie Mellon University, said the February meeting had changed his thinking. “I went in very optimistic about the future of A.I. and thinking that Bill Joy and Ray Kurzweil were far off in their predictions,” he said. But, he added, “The meeting made me want to be more outspoken about these issues and in particular be outspoken about the vast amounts of data collected about our personal lives.”

Despite his concerns, Dr. Horvitz said he was hopeful that artificial intelligence research would benefit humans, and perhaps even compensate for human failings. He recently demonstrated a voice-based system that he designed to ask patients about their symptoms and to respond with empathy. When a mother said her child was having diarrhea, the face on the screen said, “Oh no, sorry to hear that.”

A physician told him afterward that it was wonderful that the system responded to human emotion. “That’s a great idea,” Dr. Horvitz said he was told. “I have no time for that.”

Ken Conley/Willow Garage

I was reading about the Workbench of MySql on their webpage (http://www.MySql.com/products/workbench/) when I decided that I want to know about the effects Sun Microsystem purchasing of MySql and later the Oracle purchasing Sun Microsystem.

When Sun purchased MySql in January 2008 (for approximately 1 billion USD), MySql annual revenue was in the range of $50 million and growing rapidly, having millions of global deployments including Facebook, Google, Nokia, Baidu and China Mobile. It was desired to bring synergies to Sun that would change the landscape of the software industry by driving new adoption of MySql’s open source database in more traditional applications and enterprises. The integration with Sun would greatly extend the commercial appeal of MySql’s offerings and improve its value proposition with the addition of Sun’s global services organization.

Since then, Schwartz oversaw continued MySql growth in spite of a disasterous release of version 5.1, the exodus the key project developers, the resignation of MySql co-founders Michael “Monty” Widenius and David Axmark as well as MySql CEO Marten Mickos, and no fewer than three major forks of the GPL’d database.

It has not been the smoothest of sailing recently. MySql was having problems even before the Sun acquistion. In it’s effort to help the product „grow up” and cater both to enterprise users (which means adding more functionality) and newer users (which means making things more friendly and approachable – and building more tools), the team seemed to lose direction and ended up being spread too thin.

The large gap of time between MySql 5.0 and 5.1 is partly because of management and priorities, but it’s also the result a codebase badly in need of a good cleanup and refactoring-something that has not happened to this day (though there are signs of that changing). The unnecessary complexity and lack of clear standards slowed down existing developers and put a barrier for new developers as well.

These problems continued and people began to depart Sun not long after the acquisition: members of the senior management team as well as some of the most experienced and talented developers that are no longer guiding the development.

Another surprising discovery at the MySql conference a few months ago was the slow adoption rate of 5.1 in larger shops. It seems that a large number of companies did not jumped from the 5.0 series to 5.1.

But that’s just the beginning. There’s a lot more interesting development going on in the MySql universe these days. From new storage engines (Falcon, PBXT, Maria, Tokutek) to full-blown appliances from half a dozen vendors and an extensive re-write of the MySql database kernel.

What’s most surprising of all is the fact that MySql 5.4 was unveiled at the conference. It’s not a stable release yet, but it represents a compromise between 5.1 and waiting another year or more for stable builds of MySql 6.0. Realizing that development was going more slowly that they’d like, the MySql team picked some of the enhancements planned and coded for 6.0 and moved them into the 5.1 codebase, thus making MySql 5.4. (They apparently wanted to skip 5.2 and 5.3.)

This is the first of several recent signs that the MySql organization has begun to work toward improving some of the things that bothered Monty so much. That is encouraging.

In April 2009 Oracle aquired Sun Microsystems for 7,4 billion USD. With the move, Oracle now competes with nearly all of the largest technology companies, including Microsoft (MSFT) in middleware (computer software that connects software components or applications) and server operating systems, SAP and Salesforce.com (CRM) in business applications, IBM, Cisco (CSCO), HP (HPQ) and Dell (DELL) in server hardware and EMC for storage solutions. Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, cited Sun Microsystems Java platform and the Solaris operating system for servers to be the primary motivators behind the acquisition.

The unmentioned key to the acquisition is MySql. Oracle is, first and foremost, a database company, and MySql was undoubtedly a long term threat. Many of Oracle’s middleware and software products rely on the use of databases, and even Salesforce.com, a major disruptor and competitor in business software, relies on an Oracle database to run its platform. Many of Oracle’s software acquisitions allow it ensure the usage of Oracle databases, hence allowing it to add both revenue and earnings from the software AND additional database sales. With the acquisition of Sun Microsystems and MySql, Oracle seeks to control this up-and-coming, open source database, and most importantly, its licensing for commercial use. Many people’s suspicion is that MySql’s revenue growth rate, while no longer disclosed, will slow precipitously following the integration of Sun Microsystems into Oracle.

Even with the best intentions, Oracle faces serious trust issues from within and without stemming from how the company has dealt with open source in the past. Widenius says: Oracle, not having the best possible reputation in the Open Source space, will have a hard time keeping the remaining MySql people in the company or even working on the MySql project. Oracle will also have a hard time to ensure to the MySql customers, community and users that it will keep MySql “free and available for all”.

It will be easy to point the finger at Oracle 1-2 years from now and assign to them the blame for what will ultimately befall one of the most successful open source projects ever created. But the fact is that Sun bungled the acquisition of MySql, managed it poorly for 16 months and is handing the mess off to Oracle.

Whether or not Oracle decides to take on the job of fixing MySql and allowing it a seat at the table remains to be seen.

Now Widenius’ Oracle-less Open Database Alliance adds further doubt as to which branch of MySql will be considered ‘official’ going forward. “Forks are a fact of life in the open source community, and arguably an entirely healthy one,” McAllister writes: “Oracle just better hope it doesn’t end up on the wrong side of the fork.” To do so, he suggests Oracle will have to regain the trust and support of the MySql community – in other words, “stop acting like Oracle.”

Oracle could “kill” MySql “either directly or by not developing/supporting it fully,” sell it off to avoid antitrust issues, or “embrace MySql and open source and put their technical expertise on it to ensure that MySql continues to be the most popular advanced open source database,” Widenius said in a blog post.

“The biggest threat to MySql['s] future is not Oracle per se, but that the MySql talent at Sun will spread like the wind and go to a lot of different companies which will set the MySql development and support back years,” he wrote. Widenius is “prepared to hire or find a good home for all core MySql personnel” at his company, Monty Program, or “close to it.”

Useful links:

http://www.linux-mag.com/id/7342

http://monty-says.blogspot.com/2009/04/to-be-free-or-not-to-be-free.html

]]> http://supravirtual.wordpress.com/2009/07/02/mysql-sun-oracle/ Thu, 02 Jul 2009 22:07:37 +0000 supravirtual http://supravirtual.wordpress.com/2009/07/02/mysql-sun-oracle/

Citeam despre Workbench de la MySql pe pagina lor (http://www.MySql.com/products/workbench/) cînd m-am hotărît că vreau să aflu despre efectele achiziţionării de către Sun Microsystem a MySql şi apoi a achiziţionării de către Oracle a lui Sun Microsystem.

Cînd Sun a cumpărat MySql în ianuarie 2008 (pentru aproximativ 1 miliard de USD), venitul anual al lui MySql era aproximativ de 50 de milioane de dolari şi creştea rapid, avînd milioane de distribuţii precum Facebook, Google, Nokia, Baidu şi China Mobile. Se dorea să aducă sinergii către Sun, ceea ce ar fi schimbat peisajul industriei producătoare de programe de calculator prin adăugarea de noi adoptări ale bazelor de date cu sursă deschisă în aplicaţii şi companii mai tradiţionale. Integrarea cu Sun ar fi extins cu mult cererea comerială a ofertelor MySql şi îmbunătăţirea ofertei de valori prin adăugarea organizaţiei de servicii globale a lui Sun.

De atunci Scwartz a supravegheat dezvoltarea MySql în ciuda lansării dezastruoase a versiunii 5.1, exodului dezvoltatorilor de proiect cheie, demisia cofondatorilor MySql Michael „Monty” Widenius şi David Axmark ca şi a directorului executiv MySql Marten Mickos, şi obţinerea a nu mai puţin a trei bifurcaţii majore a bazei de date licenţiate (GPL – General Public Licence).

Nu a fost o perioadă uşoară. MySql avea probleme încă dinaintea achiziţiei de către Sun. În efortul ei de ajuta produsul să se dezvolte şi a furniza atît utilizatori avansaţi (asta înseamnă adăugarea de funcţionalităţi noi) cît şi utilizatori mai noi (ceea ce înseamnă a face lucrurile cît mai prietenoase şi mai uşor de abordat – şi construirea de unelte noi), echipa a părut să-şi piardă direcţia şi a sfîrşit prin a se răsfira.

Marea lacună de timp dintre MySql 5.0 şi 5.1 se datorează parţial conducerii şi priorităţilor, dar este de asemenea rezultatul unui cod de bază rău ce are nevoie de o revizuire bună şi de a fi reînnoit – ceva ce nu s-a întîmplat pînă acum (chiar dacă există semne că asta este pe cale să se schimbe). Complexitatea ce nu e necesară şi absenţa standardelor clare i-au încetinit pe dezvoltatorii existenţi şi au pus o barieră şi pentru dezvoltatorii noi.

Aceste probleme au continuat iar oamenii au început să plece de la Sun nu mult după cumpărare: membri ai echipei de conducere de la vîrf cît şi cîţiva cei mai experimentaţi şi mai talentaţi dezvoltatori care nu mai sînt implicaţi în dezvoltare.

Altă descoperire surprinzătoare la o conferinţă MySql acum cîteva luni a fost adoptarea lentă a versiunii 5.1 în magazinele mari. Se pare că un mare număr de companii nu au trecut de la versiunile 5.0 la 5.1.

Dar acesta e doar începutul. În aceste zile au loc o mulţime de dezvoltări interesante în universul MySql. De la noile motoare de depozitare (Falcon, PBXT, Maria, Tokutek) la unelte foarte dezvloltate de la o jumătate de duzină de vînzători şi rescrierea extinsă a nucleului bazelor de date MySql.

Ceea ce este cel mai surprinzător dintre toate este faptul că MySql 5.4 a fost deconspirat la conferinţă. Nu este încă o versiune stabilă, dar reprezintă un compromis între şi 5.1 şi aşteptarea vreme de încă un an sau mai mult pentru o versiune stabilă a MySql 6.0. Realizînd că dezvoltarea mergea mai încet decît ar fi dorit, echipa MySql a selectat cîteva îmbunătăţiri planificate şi codate pentru 6.0 şi le-au mutat în codul sursă a versiunii 5.1 realizînd astfel MySql 5.4 (aparent au dorit să treacă peste 5.2 şi 5.3).

Acesta este primul din cîteva semne recente că organizaţia MySql a început să muncească în a îmbunătăţi cîteva dintre lucrurile care l-au deranjat pe Monty atît de mult. Este încurajator.

În aprilie 2009 Oracle a cumpărat Sun Microsystems pentru 7,4 miliarde USD. Cu aceasta mişcare Oracle intră în competiţie acum cu aproape toate marile companii tehnologice, incuzînd Microsoft (MSFT) în middleware (software pentru calculator care conecteză componente software sau aplicaţii) şi sisteme de operare pentru servere, SAP şi Salesforce.com (CRM) în aplicaţii pentru afaceri, IBM, Cisco (CSCO), HP (HPQ) şi Dell (DELL) în hardware pentru servere şi EMC pentru medii de stocare. Larry Ellison, directorul executiv de la Oracle, a citat platforma Java de la Sun Microsystems şi sistemul de operare Solaris pentru servere ca fiind motivaţiile principale în spatele achiziţiei.

Cheia care nu a fost menţionată a acestei achiziţii este MySql. Oracle este, în primul rînd şi mai ales, o companie de baze de date, iar MySql a fost fără îndoială o ameninţare pe termen lung. Multe din produsele software şi middleware de la Oracle se bazează pe folosirea bazelor de date, şi chiar Salesforce.com, un mare distrugător şi competitor în industria software, se bazează pe bazele de date Oracle pentru a rula platformele ei. Multe din achiziţiile software de la Oracle îi permit să asigure folosirea bazelor de date Oracle, prin asta permiţîndu-i să adauge atît venit cît şi cîştiguri de la vînzări de software şi baze de date adiţionaele. Cu achiziţia lui Sun Microsystems şi MySql, Oracle caută să controleze această tendinţă, bazele de date cu sursă deschisă, şi, cel mai important, licenţele pentru folosirea lor comercială. Suspiciunea multora este că rata de creştere a veniturilor MySql, atîta vreme cît nu vor fi dezvăluite, va scădea rapid urmînd întegrarea lui Sun Microsystems în Oracle.

Chiar şi cu cele mai bune inteţii, Oracle înfruntă serioase probleme de încredere în interiorul şi exteriorul stavilei pe care compania a pus-o surselor deschise în trecut. Widenius susţine: Oracle, neavînd cea mai bună reputaţie posibilă în spaţiul Surselor Deschise, va avea greutăţi în a-i păstra în companie pe oamenii de la MySql care i-au rămas sau chiar să lucreze la proiectul MySql. Oracle va avea de asemenea greutăţi în a asigura clienţii, comunităţile şi utilizatorii MySql că va păstra MySql „gratuit şi disponibil pentru toţi”.

Va fi uşor să arătăm cu degetul spre Oracle peste 1-2 ani şi să îi blamăm pentru că, în cele din urmă, au făcut să dispară unul dintre cele mai de succes proiecte cu sursă deschisă create vreodată. Dar cert este că Sun a făcut un lucru de mîntuială cu achiziţia MySql, l-a gestionat prost vreme de 16 luni şi că se scapă de încurcătură pe seama lui Oracle.

Rămîne de văzut dacă Oracle decide sau nu să accepte treaba de a repara MySql şi dacă îi va permite să ocupe un loc pe piaţă.

Acum Alianţa Baze de date Deschise fără Oracle adaugă îndoieli suplimentare asupra cărei ramuri din MySql va fi considerată „oficial” dezvoltată mai departe. „Bifurcaţiile sînt un fapt de viaţă în comunitatea cu sursă deschisă, discutabil una în întregime sănătoasă, ” scrie McAllister. „Ar fi bine ca firma Oracle să spere că nu va ajunge pe partea greşită a bifucaţiei.” Pentru a face asta el sugerează că Oracle va trebui să recîştige încrederea şi suportul comunităţii MySql – cu alte cuvinte, „să înceteze să acţioneze ca Oracle.”

Oracle ar putea „ucide” MySql „fie direct sau prin lipsa unei dezvoltări/suport în întregime”, o poate vinde pentru a evita problemele anti-trust, sau „poate accepta MySql şi sursa deschisă şi poate să-şi folosească expertiza technica pentru a se asigura că MySql continuă să fie cea mai populară bază de date cu sursă deschisă avansată”, a scris Widenius într-un mesaj din jurnal.

„Cea mai mare ameninţare pentru viitorul MySql nu este Oracle ca entitate, ci faptul că talentele în domeniul MySql de la Sun se vor răspîndi pe aripile vîntului şi vor ajunge la o mulţime de companii diferite ceea ce va da înapoi dezvoltarea şi suportul MySql cu ani buni”, a scris el. Widenius este „pregătit să angajeze sau să găsească un cămin bun pentru tot personalul ce reprezintă nucleul MySql” la compania sa, Monty Program, sau „aproape de ea.”

Locaţii utile:

http://www.linux-mag.com/id/7342

http://monty-says.blogspot.com/2009/04/to-be-free-or-not-to-be-free.html

]]> http://gnuconlinux.wordpress.com/2009/06/16/sunabandona-el-desarrollo-de-rock/ Tue, 16 Jun 2009 18:36:40 +0000 Jonathan Hernandez Hernandez http://gnuconlinux.wordpress.com/2009/06/16/sunabandona-el-desarrollo-de-rock/

La empresa ha dejado de lado un proyecto en el que invirtió millones de dólares durante los últimos cinco años.

Adiós a Rock. Sun Microsystems ha decidido abandonar el desarrollo del chip para servidores tras cinco años de trabajo y varios millones de dólares invertidos. Rock debería haber sido lanzado en 2008, pero la fecha fue pospuesta en varias ocasiones ante las fallas descubiertas por los ingenieros de la empresa.

Sun pretendía que este chip le permitiera competir frente a productos similares de IBM y HP. Rock, por lo tanto, era una apuesta importante de la compañía que será adquirida por Oracle y en la que había invertido mucho dinero y esfuerzos.

El abandono del proyecto no fue confirmado por Sun, aunque dos fuentes anónimas anunciaron la decisión a The New York Times. De esta manera, Sun seguiría utilizando los chips de la japonesa Fujitsu para sus servidores.

El CEO de Oracle, Larry Ellison, había manifestado recientemente su intención de incrementar la inversión en el desarrollo de chips de Sun después del cierre de la adquisición, tal y como recuerda Reuters.

Vista en : | siliconnews.es

Recomienda la reconstrucción de la interfaz gráfica de OpenOffice utilizando JavaFX. ¿Será esto considerado como una intromisión y significará el principio del fin de la relación entre esta comunidad y Oracle?

Redacción – Cada vez que el CEO de Oracle habla en público desde la adquisición de Sun Microsystems que hizo su compañía, los responsables y colaboradores de los proyectos de software libre dependientes de la compañía creadora de Java y Solaris contienen la respiración. Y no es que Ellison se haya prodigado mucho, más bien al contrario; y es que la táctica de Oracle ha sido siempre muy amante del secretismo en todo lo que rodea a sus productos hasta el momento del lanzamiento final.

En una declaraciones de las que se hace eco The Register, Ellison confirma el interés que su compañía tiene por la plataforma Java en general y por sus variantes, y más concretamente por JavaFX. El CEO de Oracle ha recomendado a la comunidad de desarrolladores de OpenOffice que vayan pensando en construir la interfaz de la suite ofimática libre utilizando este toolkit. Esta afirmación que para muchos puede carecer de gran importancia, en realidad puede significar la tensión de las relaciones en el futuro entre dicha comunidad y la misma Oracle. En primer lugar porque probablemente se vea como una intromisión extemporánea e injustificada por parte de un personaje y una compañía a los que aún se mira con recelo por parte no solamente de OpenOffice, sino también de otros proyectos como OpenSolaris u OpenJDK.

JavaFX es, además, una tecnología que no ha pasado por un proceso de aprobación por parte de la comunidad vinculada con Java, sino que ha sido un desarrollo mantenido siempre dentro de Sun y bajo su control directo, y nada indica que esta situación cambie con la irrupción en la escena Java de Oracle.

OpenOffice es, además, un proyecto que pese a ser impulsado principalmente por Sun, también cuenta con una importante participación de otras compañías que, de una u otra forma, lo utilizan y retroalimentan con feedback. Es el caso de IBM, que inspira su propia suite ofimática Lotus Symphony en este desarrollo, o Novell, que incluye una variante modificada en su distribución de GNU/Linux SuSE. Un exceso de celo en controlar OpenOffice por parte de Oracle podría deteriorar las relaciones del fabricante de bases de datos con estas otras empresas, que a buen seguro ya sufren de una tirantez desde el anuncio de la operación de adquisición de Sun.

Ellison ha recomendado el uso de JavaFX para la interfaz gráfica, lo que obligaría a reprogramar amplias secciones del código fuente de OpenOffice. Si a esto le añadimos que las declaraciones de Ellison pueden ser interpretadas por la comunidad como el intento de borrar de un plumazo el proyecto Renaissance, dedicado a renovar la interfaz gráfica de usuario de la suite ofimática por excelencia.

¿El principio de un desencuentro?

Como hemos indicado anteriormente, la adquisición de Sun por parte de Oracle ha puesto en “estado de alerta” a los responsables y colaboradores de los proyectos libres emanados de la primera compañía. Cualquier movimiento de Oracle al respecto, aunque fuese con “buenas intenciones” (afirmación que siempre es muy subjetiva), podría ser malinterpretado, lo que podría llevar a una rotura de relaciones entre el proyecto en cuestión y la compañía. En este caso, dicho proyecto (ya fuera OpenOffice, OpenSolaris, OpenJDK o MySQL) podría empezar a orbitar al rededor de otra gran compañía o bien iniciar una singladura completamente en solitario.

Analizar proyecto por proyecto lo que podría pasar es harto difícil, pero sin lugar a dudas no es muy aventurado decir que el que pasará más vicisitudes será sin lugar a dudas MySQL, aunque este producto puede tener perfectamente su espacio en la cartera de Oracle sin entrar en competencia con las bases de datos que esta compañía tiene.

Todo será cuestión de que ambas partes mantengan un diálogo abierto y sereno.

Vista en : | imatica.org

“Estamos trabajando para que Sun sea 100% open source”

11/07 – Estefanía Pérez

Sun Microsystems se ha convertido en los últimos diez años en uno de los nombres imprescindibles cuando se habla del sector de las tecnologías de la información, sobretodo cuando se trata de arquitecturas abiertas, también conocidas como open source. Su firme apuesta por este modelo de negocio se basa en la creación de interfaces de programación publicadas abiertamente, sin importar su creador. De todas formas, el mercado no deja a Sun ir todo lo rápido que le gustaría en su carrera para que el open source domine el escenario tecnológico, ya que no se puede olvidar ni de los clientes, que siguen pidiendo la interoperabilidad entre los estándares abiertos y los que no lo son, ni de las empresas que siguen creyendo que en el modelo de software propietario está la respuesta.

Estefanía Pérez.- Sun ha renovado recientemente un acuerdo con Microsoft para alcanzar la interoperabilidad de sus plataformas. ¿No supone este acuerdo dar pasos atrás en su filosofía basada en el open source?

Joaquín Ochoa.- No, nosotros tenemos un acuerdo con Microsoft que firmamos en 2004 de desarrollo tecnológico para 10 años. Ahora hemos firmado una nueva fase de este acuerdo, pero nuestras relaciones con Microsoft vienen de hace muchos años, incluso antes de firmar el acuerdo de 2004 tuvimos relaciones con todos los temas relacionados con Java. Lógicamente, no compartimos exactamente la misma visión de cómo tiene que progresar el mundo de las tecnologías de la información. Nosotros estamos convencidos de que el progreso va a venir a través de los estándares abiertos, a través de la utilización de las tecnologías open source y a través de la colaboración de comunidades en el desarrollo de productos y servicios. Estamos convencidos de que el futuro va a estar ahí.

E.P.- Si es así, ¿por qué tener un acuerdo con la empresa que tiene una idea del futuro opuesta?

Joaquín Ochoa.- Porque también tenemos que dar a nuestros partners y clientes algo que vienen tiempo pidiéndonos, que es que llegásemos a un acuerdo con Microsoft del tipo del que hemos llegado ahora, es decir, que podamos comercializar Windows dentro de nuestros entornos x86. Además, es un acuerdo de virtualización cruzada: nuestros clientes y partners van a poder ejecutar aplicaciones de Microsoft en Solaris y aplicaciones de Solaris en entornos Microsoft, lo cual al final va a dar muchas más posibilidades de elección.

E.P. ¿Va a poder Sun ser alguna vez 100% open source?

Joaquín Ochoa.- Estamos trabajando en esa dirección, para que Sun sea 100% open source, aunque no sabría poner una fecha. Pero somos la primera y la única compañía que ha diseñado un procesador revolucionario y lo ha hecho open source a través de la iniciativa Open Sparc, que es algo que nos se había visto nunca en el mercado. El core de nuestro software del sistema operativo Solaris es open source, Java lo hemos hecho open source y todas nuestras switches de software las estamos haciendo open source.

“En cuanto consigamos que no haya ningún conflicto de derechos, todo será open source“

E.P.- ¿Qué es lo que está impidiendo este paso definitivo?

Joaquín Ochoa.- La única condición que nos alarga el plazo de tiempo es cuando estamos utilizando partes de software cuyos derechos son de otras compañías y tenemos que ver de qué manera podemos llevarlo al entorno open source sin que existan conflictos sobre la licencia de ninguna pieza del software que nosotros comercializamos. Es más un tema de derechos que un tema de foco de la compañía. En cuanto consigamos que no haya ningún conflicto de derechos con ninguna de las piezas del software o del hardware, todo será open source.

E.P.- ¿Van a poder entonces sobrevivir y convivir estas dos filosofías o una de las dos tenderá a desaparecer?

Joaquín Ochoa.- Nuestra filosofía y estrategia es la de estándares abiertos, que es la que permite que haya más gente, más usuarios, más empresas y más industria alrededor de determinadas tecnologías. Microsoft opta por otra cosa, pero nosotros consideramos que debemos cooperar con otros players de la industria porque a través de esa cooperación podemos avanzar, independientemente de que luego compitamos en la implementación de tecnologías.

E.P.- Pero, ¿habrá convivencia en el futuro o dominio de un modelo sobre otro?

Joaquín Ochoa.- Estamos convencidos de que open source va a acabar dominando pero no solo en sistemas de información y tecnología sino en muchas otras industrias, como de hecho ya lo está haciendo. Hay ejemplos en este momento de prácticamente todas las industrias, como la farmacéutica, donde se están utilizando modelos de colaboración open source para desarrollar productos. Estamos convencidos de que el conocimiento en la era en la que estamos, que la definimos como la era de la participación, no reside dentro de ninguna compañía, sino que reside en el mundo, donde puedes encontrar conocimiento y talento fuera de la compañía que puede ayudar tremendamente al progreso de tus productos. El conocimiento va más allá de las fronteras de una compañía, y la filosofía open source va a ser la que finalmente lidere el mercado.

E.P.- ¿Qué pasará entonces con el software propietario?

Joaquín Ochoa.- No lo sé exactamente, creo que va a tener menos espacio que el software basado en open source.

E.P.- ¿Qué le ha parecido la confirmación de la sentencia del Tribunal de la Unión Europea a Microsoft?

Joaquín Ochoa.- La verdad es que no puedo opinar sobre ese tema. No es un tema que nosotros sigamos, es algo que está entre la Unión Europea y Microsoft. No nos afecta directamente y ellos son los que tienen que opinar.

E.P.- Pero fue Sun en su momento una de las compañías que impulsó la denuncia contra la manera de hacer de Microsoft…

Joaquín Ochoa.- La Unión Europea es la que ha seguido con este tema, la que ha hecho todo lo que tiene que ver con la multa. Esto no es un juicio ni una denuncia de Sun contra Microsoft, ni muchísimo menos. Nosotros no somos una parte que estemos en este momento dentro de este litigio, por lo que no tenemos opinión al respecto.

E.P. Los acuerdos alcanzados este año no se limitan a Microsoft, sino que también han formado nuevas alianzas con Intel y AMD. ¿Qué empuje van a suponer para su sistema operativo Solaris?

Joaquín Ochoa.- Desde que hemos lanzado Open Solaris y después del acuerdo con AMD, con quien ya llevamos dos años trabajando, se han descargado más de 8.900.000 licencias de Solaris. Además, el 70% de estas licencias se están utilizando sobre plataformas x86, es decir, de Intel y de AMD. Estamos viendo una progresión importante. En estos momentos, hay más de 800 plataformas distintas sobre la que está operando Solaris. Creo que los más importante es que la percepción tanto del cliente como de nuestros partners es muy buena en el sentido que Solaris está cada vez extendiéndose más y para ellos es más fácil hacer un deployment (despliegue) del sistema operativo en todos los entornos, sin tener aplicaciones que funcionen solo en Solaris, es decir, tanto en plataformas Sparc, como AMD e Intel.

“En el mercado de software todavía puede haber posibilidades, pero no descarto adquisiciones en las áreas en las que operamos”

E.P.- Más allá de los acuerdos, lo cierto es que en todos los segmentos del mercado en los que Sun opera, debe competir con grandes gigantes. Por ejemplo, en el mercado de servidores tenemos a IBM y HP, y en el de arquitecturas SOA a Sap y Oracle. ¿No sería mejor que Sun se especializara en un solo segmento?

Joaquín Ochoa.- No. Hace año y medio reestructuramos la compañía en cuatro áreas de negocio: sistemas, que es lo que está más relacionado con servidores; almacenamiento, que resultó de unir nuestra división de almacenamiento con la adquisición que hicimos de Storage Tech; software; y servicios. Nuestra diferenciación está claramente en la innovación y en la disrupción tecnológica que estamos introduciendo en el mercado, a parte por supuesto de por la filosofía open source. Además, quizás nuestra distinción de estas compañías que mencionaba es que nuestros servicios están muy pegados a la tecnología y no damos a los clientes servicios de aplicación de negocio, porque eso es lo que hacemos con nuestros partners. Nosotros somos una compañía más orientada a la tecnología y ellos están tocando una línea más orientada a los servicios de negocio.

E.P.- ¿Cómo se consigue que el modelo open source sea rentable?

Joaquín Ochoa.- Nosotros lo estamos consiguiendo. Por un lado, puedes reducir costes en todo lo que tiene que ver con la I+D de productos y servicios. Por el otro, hay que ser capaz de comercializar productos y servicios punteros basados en esa tecnología open source. En el momento en que hemos conseguido casi nueve millones de descargas de Open Solaris, se genera una oportunidad para Sun que está en que hay otro conjunto de tecnologías que comercializamos a nuestros clientes, en todos los servicios que tienen que ver con soporte y en cualquier otro tipo de tecnología de Sun dentro de los servidores o del almacenamiento que esté también basado en Solaris. Realmente, el que haya open source a nosotros nos abre una oportunidad en el mercado y nos está permitiendo crecer. Hasta hace un año, había bastantes analistas que no estaban confiando en la estrategia de Sun y, sin embargo, ahora Gartner considera que la estrategia de Sun es muy positiva.

E.P.- De todas formas a Sun le ha costado mucho entrar en beneficios, tras cinco trimestres sin conseguirlo, pero finalmente ha logrado cerrar su ejercicio fiscal 2007 con más de 13.800 millones de dólares de ingresos. Además, la compañía sigue planteándose más adquisiciones (en los últimos 5 años ya se han producido 15). ¿Serán compras más orientadas a compañías de productos o de servicios?

Joaquín Ochoa.- Estamos explorando todas las posibilidades que pueda haber en el mercado para complementar nuestra oferta de productos y servicios y hacernos más competitivos en áreas en las que creamos que hay una oportunidad. La última compra que hemos hecho es una compañía que no es conocida por el público en general, Cluster File Systems (CFS), que tiene un producto de software que funciona en los mayores supercomputadores del mundo. Después de haber hecho esta compra, tenemos todavía 5.900 millones de dólares en cash, y Sun lógicamente no es un banco por lo que nuestra intención es seguir invirtiendo. Posiblemente, creemos que en el mercado de software todavía puede haber posibilidades, pero no descarto que en cualquiera de las otras áreas en las que operamos hagamos alguna adquisición más.

E.P.- ¿Tienen la mirada puesta en alguna empresa española?

Joaquín Ochoa.- … cualquier posibilidad está abierta.

Vista en : | www.noticias.com

At Sun Microsystems’ annual JavaOne conference today in San Francisco, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said that the company may get more involved in the hardware side of the business following the acquisition of Sun, including the manufacturing of low-cost, portable netbook computers, says Chip Brian.

Sun’s India Engineering Center (IEC) occupies most of the Divya Shree Chambers building off Langford Road in Bangalore. I kept on telling everybody that is near M.G Road but in reality it is nothing like that

Lunch (always a major preoccupation with me) is provided at the 5th-floor canteen, which gets very crowded around 12:45,hence sometimes we need to book the conference room to have our lunch . There’s a buffet of both Vegetarian and its non counterpart for a reasonable sum of Rs 35 /- (Very very cheap as per Bangalore standards but just a bit expensive as per Kolkata standards.)

For a change we can order fresh fruits , as I saw for some ladies who prefered them for the dieting routine.

The Sun break rooms have a great selection of teas, including elaichi (cardamom), masala (what Americans call chai spice), and ginger. Plus a selection of other hot drinks – cocoa, instant coffee, and flavored mixes that I haven’t quite understood yet.

There’s a machine dispensing hot water and hot milk to mix these with. There is also brewed coffee, chocolate powder,tomato soup mix and powdered,badam milk and many more .

Now coming to the important part that is WORK . The very first day I got my Badge ready for which there was a photo session sort of arrangement at the ground floor near the data-center . For the first time in my life I felt very important .

For those of you who don’t know what a Badge is , I will like to tell that it is card like thing with my photo and other details and chip and a magnetic strip .It comes to use at the security gates where we need to show it a sensor and only then the door opens .Besides this is used when we need to use a Sun Ray machine ( Runs on Solaris 10 and has a SPARC architecture) , it is inserted into a slot inside the machine.

Its is a really nice environment around to work with caring and loving seniours and and lots of respect for every employee . The working time is flexible ,by flexible I mean there is no fixed working schedule and timing or anything like that . When you are done with your work you can can go home and sleep and if its like you prefer to work nights then you can work in the office during the nights. 

So I am kind of enjoying the experience as a Sun Intern and another news I have just heard that Sun IEC Bangalore will be celebrating its 10th birthday by throwing a huge party at a hotel called OTERRA at Electronic city and we are invited . So my next post will be on IEC 10 years of Engineering Excellence.

He is the man behind all those brilliant screen casts and blog posts and loads of tutorials for both Netbeans and OpenSolaris. Finally he has decided to leave Sun but he will still stick on to Java and work for JavaOne

Here is what he writes in his blog http://blogs.sun.com/roumen/entry/leaving_sun)

“I have decided to quit Sun Microsystems. I spent amazing 5 years at Sun and I am very grateful for all I’ve learned with the company. Working on both NetBeans and OpenSolaris adoption was real fun so I leave with very mixed feelings.

I am going back to Java developer business and will be going to Java One with my new employer, so you will find me in the Java One pavilion area if you want to say hi. I wish my Sun colleagues good luck with their new adventures!

P.S. Thanks for all the beans.“

Wish you all the best Sir . Keep enlightening us with your screencasts.

After 36 hours of train journey (most of the time I was sleeping) , I am finally in Bangalore . Thanks to the office rush around 9 am , I enjoyed the pleasure of sleeping even in the prepaid auto which I took from the Yashwantpur station as  I witnessed my second worst traffic jam ever , the first one being in Mumbai , that was in the evening. I am here for an Internship at Sun Microsystems Bangalore office and I am looking forward to have a nice time working for Sun. I have managed a temporary accomodation at one of my relatives’ house and would be searching for some ’sasta’  PG type for my 2 month stay here . I had my lunch at some restaurant where  I had to pay 50 bugs  for a thali which I haven’t still been able to figure out what the hell it was . I soon realised that I had some real bad days awaiting me in terms of my        ’ khana pina’  though I was warned about it before hand from some of my seniours and friends staying at Bengluru.

Though its been not more than 10 hours here but one thing  I have noticed about people here that they are very honest and calm in nature . Talking about the honesty I would like to share the fact that there were no TT’s to look for our tickets at the station . I am again feeling sleepy I donno what has happened to me so I feel like ending it here . More from Bangalore coming soon .

Informatica: Oracle compra Sun Microsystems per 7,4 miliardi di dollari

L’azienda leader nei database acquisirà la società che ha prodotto il linguaggio di programmazione Java

NEW YORK – Oracle corporation, azienda leader nei sistemi per la gestione di basi di dati, ha acquistato la Sun microsystems, azienda californiana produttrice di software e semiconduttori, nota, tra le altre cose, per avere prodotto il linguaggio di programmazione Java.

L’IMPERO DI ELLISON – Con questo acquisto si estende ancora di più l’impero hi-tech del miliardario Larry Ellison, fondatore del gruppo specializzato in software per la gestione aziendale e grande appassionato di vela: da anni è il più fiero rivale della Alinghi dell’italo-svizzero Stefano Bertarelli nella Coppa America.

A gennaio scorso la società ha fatto sapere di attendersi che il giro d’affari relativo alla vendita di Solaris e di Java raggiungerà i 600 milioni di dollari l’anno.

Fonte:
http://www.corriere.it/economia/09_aprile_20/oracle_compra_sun_microsystem_76a3fe60-2da1-11de-b92c-00144f02aabc.shtml

As we all might have heard, Oracle has entered into an agreement to acquire Sun. While it is natural to have questions following an announcement of this magnitude, its also important to acknowledge that this is an
industry transforming event. The following excerpt from the Oracle Press Release helps to highlight this point.

“This is a fantastic day for Sun’s customers, developers, partners and employees across the globe, joining forces with the global leader in enterprise software to drive innovation and value across every aspect of
the technology marketplace,” said Jonathan Schwartz, Sun’s CEO, “From the Java platform touching nearly every business system on earth, powering billions of consumers on mobile handsets and consumer electronics, to the convergence of storage, networking and computing driven by the Solaris operating system and Sun’s SPARC and x64 systems.”

Coming back to the question of what will be the future of MySQL under Oracle. I think that as long as there is a demand for a product and such a vibrant community of users and developers behind it the product will never die.

Since it is all business as usual, we should not create a huge fuss about Oracle acquiring Sun and the future of Sun Campus Ambassadorship and the Sun Academic Initiative (SAI). I think we all should focus on our respective efforts to evangelize Free Softwares and continue conducting Talks , Workshops and related Technical sessions and continue building the Talk culture in our college which has just started some times back. We should try building the best open source community in NIT Durgapur with our Sun Club and the GNU/Linux Users’ Group.

Sun fue adquirida por 9.5 dólares por acción, un gran triunfo para Oracle, pero una derrota para IBM, que hasta hace dos semanas negociaba con la empresa.

Oracle adquirió Sun Microsystems

Oracle, la compañía estadounidense de Software, espera entrar en el mercado del hardware informático a partir de la compra de Sun Microsystems. La oferta para adquirir la compañía, consiste en US$7,000 millones, luego del fracaso de las negociaciones con IBM.

‘Oracle será la única compañía que podrá diseñar un sistema integrado donde todas las piezas funcionan juntas, de forma que los clientes no tendrán que unirlas ellos mismos’, aseguró Larry Ellison, consejero de Oracle.

La firma estadounidense de software informó del acuerdo de compra alcanzado entre ambas empresas y por el que Oracle ofrecerá a cada accionista de Sun US$9.5 por acción. Hace dos semanas, la empresa había rechazado la oferta de IBM de hasta US$9.4 por acción.

El anunció fue recibido con asombro por parte de los analistas de la empresa, pues creen que pueden impulsar la rentabilidad de las unidades de software de Sun, pero no están seguros del éxito de la unidad de hardware, ante la competencia de IBM, HP, Dell y Cisco Systems.

Safra Catz, presidente de Oracle, anunció que la empresa pretende hacer rentable la división de hardware, pues los productos de Sun que más venden son los servidores de gama alta y equipos de almacenamiento.

Ambas compañías han sido socias desde hace más de dos décadas. “Fusion Middleware“, el negocio de mejor crecimiento de Oracle, está construido sobre el programa Java de Sun. El sistema operativo Solaris de Sun también es la principal plataforma para el negocio de bases de datos de Oracle.

Se pronostica que la venta de Sun podría convertirse en la primera de muchas fusiones y alianzas en el mercado de datos, en la medida que las empresas se esfuercen por brindar servicios inteligentes que unan hardware y software.

El consejo de administración de Sun aprobó el acuerdo de forma unánime, y ahora está sujeto a la aprobación de los accionistas y las autoridades.

Nota Original: Oracle adquirió Sun Microsystems

Fuente: Altonivel.com.mx
www.altonivel.com.mx

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O grupo de informática norte-americano IBM decidiu retirar aproposta de compra sobre a rival Sun Microsystems, depois que esta rejeitou a oferta. A informação está na edição desta segunda-feira (6) do jornal norte-americano "The New York Times".

O conselho de administração da IBM tomou a decisão ontem, um dia depois da diretoria da Sun ter considerado a oferta baixa, segundo o jornal.

A IBM fez uma primeira proposta de US$ 9,55 por ação, antes de reduzir a oferta para US$ 9,40 no sábado, o que deixava a Sun Microsystems avaliada em quase sete bilhões de dólares.

Segundo o jornal, o conselho de administração não teria rejeitado categoricamente a proposta, mas teria exigido garantias que a IBM considerou "pesadas", antes de notificar a concorrente sobre o fim das negociações exclusivas.

Se a fusão fosse concretizada, seria a maior aquisição feita pela IBM, e representaria um caminho da estratégia recente de enfoque no fortalecimento de softwares e negócios, além do fornecimento de hardware.

Y si, hoy la noticia fue esa: IBM retiro su oferta de comprar a Sun Microsystems, y parece que al mercado no le gusto nada…

Three-month Nasdaq trading in Sun Microsystems

IBM Corp. is close to a deal to buy Sun Microsystems Inc., U.S. media reported Friday.

The two companies, which have been talking since at least mid-March, could announce the deal Friday or early next week, sources told the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Associated Press.

The deal could be worth nearly $7 billion US, at a price of around $9.50 for each Sun share.

The combined company would be huge in the mainframe computer market, combining IBM’s existing business and Sun’s Unix sales.

That could cause antitrust problems, media reports said.

Sun sells software, systems, services, and microelectronics and owns brands like the Java technology platform, Solaris operating system, MySQL database management system, StorageTek and the UltraSPARC processor.

The bid price of around $9.50 a share is lower than previous speculation, which suggested the deal would be done at $10 to $11

Company spokespeople would not comment, the Times said. IBM directors have already approved the deal, the paper’s sources said.

Sun stock doubled from almost $4 a share on March 18 as news of the talks became public.

It closed up 27 cents at $8.49 in Nasdaq trading.

IBM rose $1.40 to $102.22 on the New York exchange.

Walgreen profits decline 7%
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Según los rumores de las agencias de noticias C5N (Argentina) y CNN en Español (EEUU) IBM esta negociando con Sun Microsystems para la compra de este ultimo, SON SOLO RUMORES, pero el anuncio podría darse en estos días…Estén atentos

Microscope designer Leica Microsystems and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) have signed a corporate partnership agreement whereby Leica Microsystems becomes a founder partner of the EMBL Advanced Training Centre scheduled to be completed in September 2009. Besides its financial involvement, the company will provide EMBL with Leica systems and will support events for the international scientific community. In return, Leica will be granted access to the first-class facilities of the molecular biology research institute to run product and application training courses.
www.embl-heidelberg.de
www.leica-microsystems.com

Time over time I continue to talk and share the joys of using OpenOffice as an alternative to Office.  Just today I was informed by a teacher in the Pinconning Area Schools that they have started to use OpenOffice as their tool for teaching.  This teacher was just so thankful and raving about the joys of having OpenOffice in the classroom and able to have the students using it at home.  The tool is open, free and great to use.  I have been an OOo user for a long time now, I admit there have been bugs and it continues to get better with each release.

An amazing story and I love telling the use of open source software and more.

God Bless,
dl

Sun Microsystems Inc. is cutting up to 6,000 jobs, or 18 per cent of its global staff, in the latest round of layoffs by the technology giant.

The Santa Clara, Calif., company said Friday the cuts will affect more than 5,000 employees over the next year alone at a cost of $500 million to $600 million US.

But the company expects the move will save $700 million to $800 million annually by the third quarter of 2009.

Sun also announced that its software chief, Rich Green, has resigned.

Sun, best known to consumers for the Java programming language, is one of the world’s biggest suppliers of large computer servers that run corporate networks and websites. It has counted on the financial industry as one of its bigger clients.

The economic crisis has added to the already slumping sales for its high-end computers.

Revenue falling

On Oct. 30, the company released its financial results from the fiscal quarter ended Sept. 28, posting a net loss of $1.68 billion and a seven per cent year-over-year drop in revenue to $2.99 billion.

Once the apple of Wall Street’s eye, the company has fallen on hard times since the dot-com bubble burst in late 2000.

Its shares traded at a high of about $64 in September 2000, but were trading at $4.08 at Thursday’s market close.

Sun has also shifted direction in the last year, moving toward open-source software, or software where the code is open and shared and can be added to or modified by those following the conditions of a public licence.

In January, the company moved further in that direction when it announced it would buy open-source software maker MySQL AB for $1 billion.

The Swedish-based MySQL makes open-source database software used by companies such as online search leader Google Inc., popular social networking site Facebook Inc. and Finnish phone maker Nokia Corp.

This is the second announcement of layoffs at the company this year. In May the firm said it would cut between 1,500 and 2,500 jobs.

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