Sun's software czar
Published: 06 Aug 2002 12:49 BST
Within the confines of Sun Microsystems, where he is executive vice president of software, Schwartz is nonetheless brimming with ideas -- not the least of them hatching plans for the company's next assault on arch-rival Microsoft.
That's not all. He's talking about selling Linux-based desktop computers for specific jobs and backing the MySQL open-source database software for certain tasks. Schwartz is also figuring out Sun's new "N1" plan to let administrators manage thousands of servers and storage systems as a single computing resource. A fast-talking 36-year-old with a ponytail, Schwartz has made a rapid rise within the ranks since Sun acquired his software company, Lighthouse Design, in 1996. He ran Sun's $400 million investment fund -- a program that expired when the Internet bubble burst. In 2000, he took over strategy and planning, where he led acquisitions work and became Sun's top dog in the Liberty program designed to outflank Microsoft's Passport online identity system.
Despite his new role as Sun's software czar, Schwartz faithfully sticks to the party line, arguing that the company can reap bigger dividends by combining software and hardware than by subordinating one to the other.
"Everybody keeps wanting to prove that we're not a software company. Well, stop proving. We're not," Schwartz said in an interview with CNET News.com. "I don't want my staff to grow an independent business that has no value to Sun. We're not a hardware company, we're not a software company, we're a systems company." The subordinate role of software at Sun stands in stark contrast to Sun's two biggest competitors. Like Sun, IBM sells servers, but Big Blue also has independent software businesses for databases and e-commerce programs that run on other companies' servers. And of course Microsoft relies almost entirely on third-party vendors for hardware.
Software remains a low priority -- even an afterthought -- at Sun, according to some analysts who believe it could help the company remain a step ahead of the Microsoft-Intel-Dell juggernaut. Schwartz has other ideas. He recently spoke with CNET News.com about this and other issues connected with his role in shaping Sun's new strategy.
Q: There's been an ongoing debate about whether Microsoft is putting Java in their browser.
A: Microsoft is doing whatever it can to confuse developers in the marketplace, to continue to promote the idea that every platform except Windows is unstable on Windows. That's why the federal government brought suit against Microsoft. For example, just before MacWorld (the trade show), guess what Microsoft said? "We're not sure the Macintosh is viable." That just injects enough uncertainty into the system that people tip their purchase decisions.
StarOffice is available free from OpenOffice or at a nominal price if you want to deploy that in an enterprise. Are we going to building that? Yes. Do we believe there's a healthy market opportunity to deliver a Linux client and do call centers, payment processing centers, reservation systems and factory floor plants? Absolutely. You've already seen us tip our hand. We've delivered the office suite that's necessary. The Gnome community has delivered the user environment. All we need is a browser to make sure we round out the trio.
Microsoft is a great technology company. But their monopoly position has shielded them from the realities of the marketplace. Among them: Customers don't want to pay $500 for an office suite. They don't want to pay another $500 for a Windowing environment. They don't want to have their customers stolen by Passport. They don't want to have their media locked up in Windows Media format.
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