RoboGeek

Can Sun and Microsoft compete/cooperate

[This is the second of the copied-over postings from my jroller.com weblog]

There's ruminations running about over whether we can compete and cooperate at the same time.

For example, see here http://news.com.com/2100-7343_3-5207581.html?tag=nefd.lede

Obviously there's been a lot of acrimony between our companies (I work for Sun) over a long time. Just as obviously, Sun has a history of cooperating with their competitors over areas where it makes sense to cooperate. This apparent contradiction has a long history in business in general, and around 10-15 years ago I remember the word "Coopetition" being bandied about to describe this state.

Coopetition being the state where two or more companies cooperate on some things and compete on others.

In computing the obvious example are the standards committees. Computer and software companies have to agree to cooperate in areas covered by the standards. Without the JPEG standard, for example, would the World Wide Web be so easily able to embed pictures in text on web pages? No, because if every computer or software maker had their own proprietary image format then it would be a nightmare for end-users to figure out how to view each picture. The nonchalant use of images on web pages we have today, that makes the web look so nice, would just not be done.

An example specific to Sun is the IBM/Java connection. IBM probably has more people working on Java than Sun does, but then IBM has a much worse platform proliferation story than does Sun and IBM has to have more people working on Java because of the huge number of hardware platforms they saddled themselves with. In any case, IBM and Sun obviously compete in many areas (hardware, software, etc) and even compete with each other over Java. But we also cooperate with each other over Java, because obviously it's good for the Java market for us to cooperate on it.

In any case, all this is way of an example why I think that Sun and Microsoft can cooperate. Amongst the people I work with we, in the Java/J2SE team, have a lot of knowledge about Microsoft's operating system and other software products they make. We have to, because Microsoft hasn't been cooperating with us on the production of Java, which leaves it to us, Sun, to make the Windows version of Java. The Microsoft/Sun/Java deal could have happened differently if, years ago, Microsoft had chosen to play correctly with the Java market. There might not have been need for the lawsuits and the rest, had Microsoft chosen to play nice. They didn't, and we learned a lot along the way.

Sun has a clear business need to interoperate better with Microsoft's infrastructure. But that doesn't mean we need to sell their software. Just having documentation of their protocols (which I understand is in the core of the agreement) is enough, as we have a lot of smart people hanging out in this company. Why would we do this? Well, obviously, any corporation to which Sun wants to sell server hardware is likely going to have some Microsoft equipment hanging around as well. Obviously, then, it'll be easier for Sun to sell that hardware if we can show better interoperability with that Microsoft equipment.

Have we sold our soul to the devil?

Well, only time will tell really. A couple years ago I predicted that Scott McNeally would have another M-M-M-xxx moment, this time over Microsoft. If you recall, in the 80's and early 90's Sun was a pre-eminent workstation maker (servers were a sideline intended primarily to support the workstations). The GUI environment was important to Sun, and Sun had chosen the NeWS (a previous Gosling project), and later xnews and open look, environments for their workstations. But the rest of the Unix industry joined together to make OSF (Open Software Foundation) and the Motif/CDE environment. Some wags claimed OSF meant Oppose Sun Forever. In any case, Scott used to rag on Motif just as strongly as he ever ragged on Microsoft, and supposedly we'd support Motif over somebodies dead body. Seems that kind of hyperbole just never works, because the Sun marketing staff had to trot Scott up onto a stage so he could stumble over the word Motif in saying that Sun would support the CDE environment, ditch its Open Look environment, etc.

What I predicted a couple years ago was that eventually we'd have to trot Scott up on a stage to say nice things about Microsoft and whatnot. Well, that finally came to being. Just like Sun put the anti-Motif thing behind it, so will we put the anti-Microsoft thing behind us. We're all adults here, so why can't we do this?