Yesterday, I noted that there has been a change in management, and the guy who signed that agreement is gone. On the other hand, they still offer OpenSolaris as a competing product. On the third hand, no one showed up at trial to testify for SCO. So the real question I was asking was, has Sun changed? After all, Microsoft talks a lot about openness and such, but they fail to convince me that they wouldn't kill and eat my cat if they thought there was money in it. Ethics is the real value add to FOSS, you know. It's the one thing Microsoft can't embrace, extend and extinguish. The hovering doubt in my mind was, did Sun benefit from the SCO assault on Linux? Did they intend it? Is it all still playing out as they hoped? Clearly SCO's attack failed, but no one predicted that. So, other than that, what exactly is the answer to my question?

Groklaw member grouch took my question seriously, and he researched and compiled a list of all the Groklaw articles since we began. At that point, he says, he needed to go no further, because it was obvious there has been a change.

No matter where you stand on my question, I think it's useful to have as a handy list. I pointed the finger at Sun back in 2003, and it turns out I was exactly right. So all you guys who attacked me for saying that Sun was playing an ugly game can send me apology emails now. : )

But fair is fair. If there has been a change, I need to highlight that too. Whether their journey is complete is another question, but grouch's research shows the trajectory very clearly.

***********************

A Brief History of Sun on Groklaw,
~ by grouch

I just took about 2 hours putting together a list of links to Groklaw articles from the Archives with "Sun" in the title. This was in response to one of your comments with the question, "2. Have they really changed?"

2. Have they really changed?

I think Sun is not the same as it was 5 years ago, or even 3 years ago. How long has it been since Schwartz blogged about Red Hat being "proprietary"? Even RMS got tired of all the noise Sun made about setting Java free, someday, but then Sun actually did it. That was shockingly different. Could you imagine any of the higher-ups at Sun saying the following in an interview 5 years ago?

Remember: open source is not about "having" the source code; it's about having the freedom to do things with the source code. You can't isolate the philanthropic element out of open source; in fact, it couldn't have existed without it. The American software freedom activist Richard Stallman has been quoted many times on the subject of free software. He has always insisted that he's perfectly relaxed about people making money out of software, just as long as people don't lose their freedoms as a result.

-- Sun sheds light on its open-source future -- Adrian Bridgwater, ZDNet.co.uk, 2008-04-29

Your articles in the Archives pretty well map the changes over time:

• Sun Comes Out From Behind the Clouds 2003-07-10
• Sun Finds a New Way to be Repulsive 2003-07-29
• Sun Is Currently Distributing the 2.4 Kernel Under the GPL 2003-07-29
• Sun: Falling Down the Rabbit Hole 2003-07-31
• Sun: The Toxic Boyfriend 2003-08-09
• Sun: "We Don't Believe Linux Plays a Role on the Server" 2003-09-19
• Public Patent Foundation Announced & Sun Digs a Patent Hole For Itself 2003-11-04
• MS & Sun Settle Lawsuit, Create "Patent Regime" 2004-04-03
• Sun Shows Their True Colors and Attorney Denise Howell on SCO 2004-04-27
• A MS-Sun "Debate" 2004-05-06
• Sun Java Desktop System Release 2's License: "Worst Software License Ever to Have Crossed My Desk" 2004-05-23
• Sun's Schwartz Badmouths Red Hat Some More - Eric Raymond's Rebuttal 2004-05-28
• Sun Claims It Is Considering Buying Novell 2004-08-02
• Sender ID Dead for Now and SUN-MS Agreement RE Open Office 2004-09-14
• Sun Charms Us Further 2004-09-22
• Sun and Brand X Open Source 2004-09-28
  [Oh, that "deeper hole" update quote is both an exclamation point and stinger to that article].
• Kodak Wins Java Lawsuit Against Sun 2004-10-03
  [More about software patents than about Sun's behavior, but included because I think it marks the turning point].
• Sun and Kodak Settle for $92 Million 2004-10-07
• The Patent Conversation Continues -- Sun's Jonathan Schwartz 2004-10-20
• Sun's Jonathan Schwartz Will Take Your Questions Now 2004-11-19
• Sun's Proposed CDDL License - Feedback Requested 2004-12-05
• Sun Revises its CDDL and A Map of Groklaw 2004-12-18
• Sun's 1600 Patents, OpenSolaris, and CDDL 2005-01-26
• Sun Begins to Respond to Patent Questions 2005-02-01
• Sun's Schwartz and McNealy: Patent Pledge Only for CDDL Licensees 2005-02-02
• Sun Responds to Criticism of CDDL 2005-02-05
• Sun's Schwartz Defends Open Source 2005-03-30
• Report on the UK Debate on OSS Between IBM, Sun and OpenForum Europe 2005-04-28
• MS, Sun and IBM All Show They Need Open Source 2005-06-14
• Sun's McNealy Lives and Learns 2005-06-26
• More on Massachusetts - MS Talking Points & an Answer from Sun's McNealy 2005-09-11
• Morgan Keegan Letter Re Sun, MS, and SCOsource 2005-09-28
• Some Musty Old MS FUD Fails & Sun Does a Very Fine Thing 2005-10-03
• Google and Sun News Conference Live at 1:30 PM ET - Updated 2005-10-04
• Sun Says They'll Convert Word Files to ODF 2005-11-08
• IBM Subpoenas Microsoft! Sun! Baystar and HP! 2006-02-21
• The Curious Incident of Sun in the Night-Time, by Richard Stallman 2006-05-24
  [Mr. Stallman's frustration at the "non-incident" of Sun yet again keeping Java non-free].
• Sun's Historic Java Announcement 2006-11-13
  [Never thought I'd see the day].
• What's the Difference Between that 2004 Sun-MS Agreement and Novell's? 2006-11-24
• Sun Announces ODF Converter for MS Office 2003 - MA Already Using it 2007-02-07
• Sun's Schwartz Pledges to Use Patents to Protect Red Hat and Ubuntu 2007-05-22
• More Novell Exhibits: We Find Out What MS & Sun Paid SCO For 2007-06-03
• SCO files motion in limine re apportionment of MS/Sun $$ and to exclude Novell's expert 2007-08-28
• Sun joins the party in Delaware 2007-10-10
• The NetApp-Sun Patent Litigation Is On: Anyone Know of Any Prior Art? - Updated 2Xs 2007-10-25
• Sun Makes Its Moves Against NetApp 2007-10-29
• Details on the Sun-MySQL Deal 2008-01-16

[Whew! The above includes everything I could find in the archives with "Sun" in the title. A few have nothing to do with whether Sun has really changed or not, but are included for completeness. Maybe it could be a useful list for someone].

I think the opening of the dialog about software patents represented the beginning of a change at Sun Microsystems. It just seems to me a light came on and began to glow brighter with time. From "lunatics" and "deeper hole" to acknowledging Richard Stallman and "[y]ou can't isolate the philanthropic element out of open source; in fact, it couldn't have existed without it"? This is the same Sun? Maybe some really do live and learn!

Hope this is useful somehow.

---
-- grouch

"People aren't as dumb as Microsoft needs them to be."
--PJ, May 2007

Update: A reader points to the European Commission's assessment of Sun's contribution to FOSS here [PDF]. Also there is word today that MySQL is going to be 100 per cent open source:

As reported yesterday from CommunityOne:

• MySQL Server is and will always remain fully functional and open source,
• so will the MySQL Connectors, and
• so will the main storage engines we ship.

In addition:

• MySQL 6.0’s pending backup functionality will be open source,
• the MyISAM driver for MySQL Backup will be open source, and
• the encryption and compression backup features will be open source,

where the last item is a change of direction from what we were considering before.