Sam Varghese
Friday, 30 January 2009 04:57
Opinion and Analysis
Page 3 of 6
iTWire: Have you set some kind of target - by this date we're going to have an OpenSolaris which can be used by someone who's been using computers for so many years, but who cannot actually be called tech-savvy?
SP: I don't think we're thinking in those sorts of terms, no. If you look at the current OpenSolaris, the OpenSolaris 2008-11, it is already remarkably approachable. You can get a live CD and run it up on your PC right now with no technical savvy at all, and it will work great. From that live CD, you can install it with minimum fuss.
The real thing that is a question is whether the respository that it's using - the software repository from which you do your installations, whether that's populated with the software you need or not. So it's not so much about your technical savvy it's about your area of application use. And for 2008-11 that repository is well-populated but in need of growth. Then the next release that's coming up - 2009-04 - will have a much better populated repository because the community is energetically migrating packages into it.
iTWire: What kind of impact will the current loss of jobs at Sun have on your open source strategy?
SP: The Sun open source strategy is an adjunct to our product strategy. In the restructuring that's going on at the moment, there are undoubtedly going to be some projects that are cut, and the open source activity that results from those projects will be impacted, I'm sure. But it's worth commenting on though, that what's going on at the moment - this is not a classic head count reduction activity. We already did that - that happened last year. This is a full-scale restructuring that's going on here.
We're taking all the building blocks that are on that table, and we're building a new company on this table. The people being laid off are not a percentage of the workforce - rather, they are the parts that are not being incorporated into the new restructured company. Some (parts) of the restructured company actually has open vacancies. They're actually hiring new people. Some of the people who are over there will actually find new jobs in the restructured Sun.
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