Dibbler's Net

If the WSJ and other reporting outlets are to be believed then Monday may be the last day of SUN as we have known it. This is an incredibly sad rumor if IBM does buyout Sun. When I first started in computers I was surrounded by IBM with AIX, OS2, and mainframe’s. Over time we saw more Sun systems make it into the corporate world. Over the years I have worked on just about every variety of Unix made. 10 years ago this story wouldn’t have surprised me and might have made sense. However in the past 5 years Sun has really turned around and has become a company of real innovation and growth. Almost daily I visit blogs.sun.com and click on all to scroll through what’s new from an employees perspective. Sun has been continually releasing new software with the new mindset of free or opensource with cost for support, training, or enterprise features. This seems to be working well for them. My fears are similar to what I saw when Symantec bought Veritas. At the time Veritas was king of the hill on many levels of the datacenter. Then when Symantec bought them we saw features drop, employees let go, and the product line ransacked to the point of being a joke. There is no doubt in my mind that if IBM buys Sun we will see the parts that IBM wants folded in and the other 2/3’s be dropped along with the strong talent that Sun has working for them. With the release of opensolaris, free virtualization in both zones and LDOM’s, and a low or no cost software baseline that covers almost every aspect of enterprise needs, there is just nothing that IBM can bring to the table. Sun has been making large leaps in their hardware options as well, becoming highly competitive with almost all other computer makers for the business market. IBM stopped innovating long ago and instead has stuck to a profit line of over charging for old software and weak service.

I don’t see the benefit of this buyout. In the past 5 years I can’t think of any real benefits that have come from the two large company buyout story. It makes sense when the large company buys the small new technology company. That is usually done to help put resources behind a good idea trapped in a small company. However in the cases of large companies it’s more of one company wanting a small part of the other large company and mainly wanting the customer base. There is a big issue with this thinking. IBM and Sun are both large companies that customers already know of. If customers wanted to buy from IBM they would already be customers. Buying the competition does not mean you will get the customers, it only means you will have them for about a year or two as they move to find a new vendor that will meet their needs and not try to buy them.

For the last week I have been thinking about this story, each day I think of another part of Sun that I will miss. I don’t know which vendor will come in to pick up the pieces but in the end I see this as just putting IBM in a more dangerous financial situation and will bring about the conversations about how Sun used to be much like we talk about how UUNet used to be. I have no belief that this comment of mine will make any difference and I was really hoping that this rumor turns out to be false but at this point I have accepted the rumors as true and have started to think about what vendor will I be moving to next. I use Sun hardware and software every day and I will miss the amazing people and the products. Hopefully IBM will not destroy the Sun image and will let it die peacefully but somehow I doubt it.

Sun I will remember you for the company I have known for 20 years. I have seen you beat IBM toe to toe, I have watched you truly morph into a company that had to change to stay alive, and now just when it seems that you are finding your new place in the world it looks like you will be sold, stripped, and left for scrap on the side of the road. To all those Sun employees who I have met and work with I wish you the best and hope that you will land softly. I truly predict that if this purchase goes through we will see 2/3 of the employees let go in the first 2 years and the Sun that we know today will be dead in 3 years. I hope that this doesn’t happen and that this turns out to be a bad rumor but I gave up on lofty dreams in the business world many years ago.

Sun - Feb 24, 1982 to April 6, 2009. Rest in Peace, You will be missed but not forgotten. Timeline

Derrick

So about a month ago I upgraded from a T-Mobile wing to the G1. Somehow in the process I missed the requirement for a voice plan as I previously had data only for the wing. So now it’s been about 30 days that I have had the G1 and I wanted to share my personal views on this new phone. Now this is based on both the HTC G1 phone and the android software together. I do look forward to other vendors putting Android on their hardware to see how the platform grows.

The Cons: Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way first.
No real headphone jack. I still haven’t plugged in the headphones that came with the phone because the whole usb to headphone idea bothers me. I have heard rumors this will change in the next revision.
No real belt clip. Since I don’t use this as my primary cell phone this hasn’t been a real issue yet. The phone comes with a soft protector but that does not make it very convenient to use as a phone when walking around as it spends time either on the desk or in a pocket.
The mail app. I really thought the Android folks would get email right but not yet. I installed k9 on day one as it supports real delete for imap mailboxes. Hope to see the bundled app improve in this area.

The Pros:
3G service. I have had really no issues receiving 3G service and the speed on the lower edge network works well when 3G is out of range. The auto switching to Wireless Lan’s works really well and I have been impressed with the data services overall.
The browser is much better than the pocketPC version on the wing. While there is room for improvement I find it to be useful and non-frustrating.
The Android Market: I simply love this part. I check it every 1-2 days and browse by date to see what new apps are out there.
Google apps: The Gmail and maps and searching work as advertised and I haven’t had any real issues.
The whole keyboard experience: I need a real keyboard. It’s why I bought the wing and why I waited for this G1. The keyboard works well and doesn’t take from my screen space. A set of keys for arrows would be nice as sometimes I need those and not every app supports the stick. I don’t find an issue with the bump on the right when typing unless I have the power cord plugged in. Then my hands have to conform a bit.
The Touchscreen: It works. Sometimes it has issues where you see that you clicked something but it doesn’t respond. I expect this is just software and will be fixed soon.
The Battery Life: Twice I have had to stop using it because the battery was low. However I really should turn wifi and gps off when I am not using them as I know these are power sinks.

Overall the device is nice. I added in additional memory and I like how everything is setup. I prefer a physical switch for keyboard lockout but the two button combo is a good second place.
The software has performed very well. Much faster than the wing and I don’t spend time waiting. I have had good impressions of the apps I have downloaded and very few have crashed or made the phone unstable. I would and have recommended this device to others especially since it is very usable for remote SSH.

Applications: I have found a lot of cool apps and really good apps. Still need a slingbox player and a few other items but I know those should be coming soon.

Next up. I have installed the SDK and associated software. I know 2 applications that I want to write. Now I just need to find time to actually write them. Once I do I will post the details and my experience with the software side of Android.

Derrick

A co-worker sent me a message letting me know that our Book was recently reviewed and that was posted on slashdot. Today being a long work day I hadn’t gotten to slashdot today but I did find time to read through the review. I felt it was fair and identified similar faults that Max and some of us felt were there and could be fixed if only there were more time (the story of any book project).

Please read the review and let me know what you think. If you have the book and have comments let me know. Also if you have the book and have had issues with Syngress’s web site for the digital content you can also find that at Nagios3Book.com.

D~