A salam alay kum, everyone…its a good time to remember that for all the mis-management, bad analysis, and lack of clarity over how decisions are actually made at Sun, there is still some ability to lead, and make a difference in such a staid marketplace…unfortunately, my proof point on this claim is some completely unknown Belgian ERP vendor supporting Glassfish and MySQL, presumably at the run-time and not as some integration project to get cheaper support services from Sun…I will link to it, but don’t hold your breath that this is the obvious marker of a turn-around:https://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/1873528/and https://www.sun.com/aboutsun/pr/2008-09/sunflash.20080909.1.xmlI made some statement some weeks back that Sun should abandon any account discussion that involves ERP, with a specific reference to Oracle, but also finally settled on the costs of supporting a SAP implementation being not worth it, and really making the argument that Sun is the ultimate Web-tier vendor, where all of their money comes from, and their only competitive advantages lie…the only problem with that analysis is not the installed base, because Sun is going to lose that anyway, the problem is that ERP actually works, and is essential to running a business, and therefore, is at the forefront of being web-influenced, and will need to be a part of any infrastructure decision…so without issuing a back-track, I will ask: why not buy this Belgian company?…I mean, you could probably get it for less than $500M, and have a new area for conversations in all sales discussions, built around MySQL and Glassfish; it seems like this little announcement just fell in to the laps of Sun PR, as there is little in the way of fanfare on the site to explain to the thirsty followers of Sun what it means to pour millions of dollars in to Sun software, I mean, honestly, outside of E-Trade in 1999, and potentially Telstra in 2002, has there ever been a multi-million dollar deal for software at Sun?…(don’t give me any crap about Solaris, or i’ll shut you down in 1 comment)… for all the problems at Sun, that start with a neophyte as CEO, extends to his choices for a product management team (Fowler and Green) that have no ability or guts to call him on bad or expired ideas, and ends with terrible, completely atrocious marketing execution (yes, Anil, there is nothing you can do, at this point, to redeem yourself, as far as i can tell), the end-game scenario probably does not happen soon, and that is surely a testament to the unparalleled leadership of Scott McNealy during the first 20 years…i was one of the last to get on-board the campaign to move Scott out of day-to-day leadership, and personally felt that Jonathan was not ready to become CEO, but he wanted it, the Board wanted it, and i ultimately agreed that the time was right to have Scott move on, and give the youngster a shot…That single decision has cost Sun the bulk of its innovative legacy, its reputation, its cash, its installed base, its swagger, and its ability to survive another severe down-turn…so, we look with cautious optimism that the worst of the American-inspired financial crisis is behind us (even considering some hick-ups, like Lehman Brothers), and that more than ever, companies of all sizes and types will look to IT vendors on the basis of ROI, not some other TCO analysis, but actually how is the installation of a set of software programs running on a set of hardware servers going to improve my bottom-line: that is the only metric that matters, and it bodes well for Sun Microsystems…Sun can do this, not on the back of Storage or Solaris, but on the back of Glassfish, as the announcement above should make vanilla-plain and clear…there is no option left, but to double-down on Enterprise Java, and force the conversation to be on Sun’s terms, where only they control the nature of the implementation, and therefore, have a built-in, irrefutable competitive advantage that results in customer ROI being more than justifiable to support the premium on Sun products…I mean i love the Glassfish people, i think they have done something that no one predicted, and some are even unwilling to admit: defeat JBoss at their own game…Sun is in a position to turn the corner, i have complete confidence in the Glassfish guys and the developers worldwide who are betting on it… I just got to think that ultimately they are going to have to pay me to keep doing this, to show the way, to give perspective, and to bury the hatchet…i mean, if anyone needs reminding in Santa Clara, I didn’t pick the fight, the fight came to me, and i responded, i don’t roll over, ever…i will fight for what is right, and that is what i have always done, there is nothing that is going to change, i will be here, Sun will need me, and i have no problem doing whatever they ask of me, except:apologize or change…. Java