ZDNet UK

CNET NETWORKS UK BUSINESS SITES:
atlarge.com
BNET UK
silicon.com
SmartPlanet.com
ZDNet.co.uk

ZDNet.co.uk - Winner of Best Business Website 2007

You are here: ZDNet.co.uk > News > Software

Desktop platforms Toolkit

Sun tries new tactic in Linux battle

Martin LaMonica CNET News.com

Published: 31 Aug 2004 16:40 BST

Sun Microsystems will begin compensating its sales staff for deals that involve hardware from other manufacturers, as part the company's efforts to fend off competition from low-cost servers running Linux.

In a posting to his blog, chief operating officer Jonathan Schwartz said on Monday that employees will be compensated for sales of Sun's Solaris Unix operating system on non-Sun hardware.

"So if a sales rep sells Solaris on Dell or IBM, or even HP (Xeon or Nocona), we pay them as if they sold the hardware," Schwartz wrote. "I'm not sure we could make the point more clearly that we're committed to making Solaris the volume leader on all systems."

The change comes at a time when Sun is trying to make its own servers more competitive with Linux, which continues to become more prevalent in corporate data centres. According to analysts, many of Sun's current financial woes stem from the fact that many corporate customers are opting to buy commodity servers that run Linux and use x86 processors from Intel or Advanced Micro Devices, instead of purchasing Sun's own Solaris on Sparc servers.

In response to the Linux competition, Sun has renewed its commitment to selling Solaris servers for the x86 platform. Last year, the company partnered with AMD to develop servers based on AMD's Operton 64-bit processor. Sun is also developing software called Janus for running Linux applications on Solaris.

Schwartz noted that Solaris is now "up and running" on Intel's new Nocona processor for servers, which can run both 32-bit and 64-bit applications.

Schwartz, formerly the head of Sun's software business, has sought to shake up the company's internal culture in an effort to bring it back to stable financial footing. The company, which currently makes the bulk of its revenue from its Sparc-based servers, has renewed its commitment to Solaris and other software product lines, such as its Java application server and open-source desktop system.