I know, I know, this is an age-old argument in the Sun-Java-business talkosphere: does Java, which for the most part is given away for free, really have the effect of increasing the sales of things that Sun does actually sell for money, which mostly means servers? But rarely have I seen the case for the negative put out as starkly as it was in this recent Register piece: The best example I can give for Sun’s silliness is the company’s decision last August to ditch its SUNW symbol, which showed Sun’s heritage as a workstation maker, on the NASDAQ stock exchange. Instead of picking the real symbol of the company, which you could abbreviate SLRS, Sun’s president and CEO, Jonathan Schwartz, decided to make his mark (well, one of many) on the company by switching it to JAVA. Like Java ever really made any money for Sun. Lots of good PR since 1995, no doubt. But money? No way. Harsh, but not something to dismiss out of hand. Of course, it’s in the service of an argument that Sun is going to be turned around by open source Solaris, which is something I also question. Software Development