Sun turns 25 - Is there a reason to celebrate?

Filed in archive Basics on February 26, 2007

Sun turns 25 this week and probably there will be celebrations at the company but are these celebrations worth it? This is a question which might be popping in the minds of the top brass. If we look at the company then it's not performing in the same manner as it was doing five years back. Its stock has not been performing as expected and though it has various technologies in its kitty which it can be proud of but it has failed to capitalize on its Strength.

Sun was born when the world of computing was dominated by mainframes and the company made a serious effort of bringing affordable workstations for mid sized businesses. During the 80s they were entangled in the war of workstations but at the end of the day it was Sun which emerged as the prominent winner It was the company's idea of offering entire computing solutions which enabled it to garner business worth $500 million in a matter of just five years.

Now the company at this point of time it has made an effort to support open source ranging from Solaris to Java but the shareholders don't seem too excited about this coz they are concerned about profitability. They remember the golden era of the 90's when the company was performing at its peak. Even after the dot com bubble burst they continued to grow and some experts say this was the time when the company grew complacent.

Sun has been regarded as a victim of their follies and their biggest mistake till date is regarded as Linux even though they could have survived with Unix. We all will surely agree that Sun has some of the best technologies in the world but it's not necessary that the best will always get the best. This might be true to some extent but we must realize that this company still has a lot of strength left to contribute to the world of technology. Anyways wish you a very happy birthday Sun!!