> > On 19 Aug 2010, at 15:43, Rick Ramsey wrote: > > > I've been with Sun since 89 and our great engineers > have always moved on. There's only room for a few at > the top, after all. It's actually a healthy > movement, since it gives younger engineers with fresh > approaches a change to step up. > > Indeed. Sun had just under 30,000 employees when > Oracle took over, IIRC. The list of 'big names' who > have left, while all incredibly talented people, does > nonetheless represent a pretty small drop in the > ocean of Sun's talent pool. > > Cheeri, > Calum.
Certainly I don't wish to suggest that choosing to stay or go corresponds to talent or ethics or any other particular attribute. I only mean to suggest that there is the appearance that enough talented people that were likely to be able to write their own ticket anywhere chose to go that it suggests the possibility that some felt that their preferred approach to solving problems or creating something new could better be pursued elsewhere. Now maybe the culture under the new management is more congenial to some than to others, maybe it's all perfectly normal. And of course a desire to maintain a professional demeanor and preserve valuable relationships may prevent those that left from discussing in detail their reasons for leaving. But the bottom line is that it's rather easy, even for someone that's not a recruiter or normally pays much attention to such things, to identify a considerable amount of talent with Solaris internals, Java, etc, that's not beholden to the successor of the company where those originated. That plus an apparent indifference to community other than strictly on their own terms (which look suspiciously like "how much money have you put in my pocket recently?", i.e. profit is necessary, but being so simplistic is oh so quarterly-report minded), doesn't even make good sense from the perspective of a _rational_ control freak (if there is such a thing). Now...if I see that overall relationships with .edu's (how many courses on OS design are switching to/from using Solaris as an example; how many students can get their hands on Solaris in class) and entrepreneurs and startups (those who are growing, not just those who've already arrived, i.e. the Fortune 500) aren't deteriorating, maybe I'm all wrong about how short-sighted the new owner's approach is. _If_ I'd even be able to see that. For me, even what remains is better than nothing. I can't abide a black box; "no user-servicable parts inside" is a good way to alienate me quickly. I can usually troubleshoot better than first-line vendor support from any given vendor, esp. given the tools, which can be a better deal both for who I'm working for and for the vendor. Now...what I use at work, I'd prefer to use at home, too. I can't reasonably spend more than low three digits US$ per year on support at home, for two small systems. But it would still be cost-effective for the vendor if I could view at least a privacy-redacted version of the bug database, and submit bug reports (without any particular expectation of a personal response). That way, they get information at a level of quality that probably exceeds most initial bug reports, which should end up saving them money. I can't be the only programmer/systems administrator crossover with enough exposure to internals to do some of their own troubleshooting. Even if we never donated a line of code, that talent pool probably has a decent dollar value in terms of higher quality bug reports, _occasionally_ even down to the relevant piece of code (and not ruling out the possibility of a suggested fix). Nor are we so clueless as to be unable to implement obvious additions (like more library routines) that might enable others to more easily port apps to Solaris. From what I recall, apps actually have something to do with selling systems (see the Wikipedia entry on VisiCalc, an early spreadsheet program). An OS that runs more apps, invites more people to become familiar with it, sells more systems and more support contracts (money in the pockets of the vendor's shareholders). A climate where secrecy and lawsuits are more visible means of pursuing profit than collegial creativity and encouraging customers to ask more informed questions, alienates more developers these days...even some of the commercially successful ones. When large established institutions that get all warm and fuzzy about support contracts start to appreciate the value of open source (which has been happening!), it's clear that the market has gotten a little more sophisticated than just looking for a big name that offers one-stop shopping for everything from the power cord to the database. It's easy: sales->developers->community Faking it on the community part is...better than nothing at all, but really not good enough anymore. -- This message posted from opensolaris.org _______________________________________________ opensolaris-discuss mailing list opensolaris-discuss@opensolaris.org
