I don't think Oracle would have bothered buying Sun if they had any plans to close the hardware operation, and the fact that they have (for several years) workied in partnership with Sun on their database and other offerings leads me to think that perhaps Sun will become even more Oracle-orientated in the future. Whether that is a good or bad thing remains to be seen!

The internet - allowing those who don't know what they're talking about to have their say.

I would have to agree with Ken. Sun is predominately a hardware vendor, so for Oracle to buy that and then shut it down makes no sense. It is not as if Oracle were buying and removing the competition, they worked very well together but were not competing directly.

Without hardware what would be left of Sun? Java and OpenOffice? I don't know what Oracle paid, but I imagine it was a lot if they only wanted these.

Steve

I think Oracle will maintain the Sun business, but primarily focused on optimized systems for Oracle data bases (ie systems that have a recurring software license attached). More general purpose systems will most likely get short changed.

I have pointed out the obvious, and do not think Sun is going away. The idea that Oracle would buy Sun, who's cash cow is hardware, then drop the hardware has me banging my head on the wall.

I keep hearing other vendors (IBM, HP-UX) have "offerings" to move people off of Sun. Hurm, as far as I know, this is normal and has always been something vendors do, even Sun has an upgrade path from other vendors to Sun.

*Scream*

Oh well, the battle to put real hardware behind NetBackup continues!

You might want to look at the support contracts that Oracle is offering for Solaris support.  

Recently they have increased prices substantially in a number of areas.  Oracle seems to be targeting only large enterprises with deep pockets, otherwise there is no explanation that someone wanting to run Solaris at home (legally) would have to purchase a $1000+ annual support contract.  No doubt Oracle is doing that to recoup their $7 billion investment costs.

My personal belief is they won't make it an appliance for databases only, but will instead become more like IBM with regard to their sales of AIX/Power.