Sun Microsystems

David Yen, executive vice president of Sun Microelectronics (Sun's chip group), is leaving the company after 20 years to go to Juniper Networks.

Mike Splain, who has been at Sun for two decades as well, has been appointed as acting head of the organization.

Yen has been one of Sun's most visible executives for several years and was seen as a rising star in the new era under CEO Jonathan Schwartz. The departure, despite what some analysts might say, is somewhat of a surprise.

The departure will also likely once again raise the question, "Why does Sun … Read more

After the release of the software development kit for Apple's iPhone, Sun Microsystems says it's going to enable Java applications to run on the device, InfoWorld is reporting.

Sun will build a Java Virtual Machine (JVM), based on the Java Micro Edition version of the programming language after June of this year. It will be available in the iPhone AppStore. Eric Klein, vice president of Java marketing at Sun, told InfoWorld Friday that although Apple passed on enabling Java on the iPhone, Sun decided to do so anyway after Thursday's SDK unveiling. After combing through the documents … Read more

A few years ago, servers based around Linux and Intel or Advanced Micro Devices chips decimated the market for high-end Unix servers.

The same thing is about to happen to in the storage market, says John Fowler, executive vice president of systems at Sun Microsystems. And this time, Sun hopes to be one of the beneficiaries of the trend, not one of the victims.

"Open storage is going to be one of those big changes events for that part of the industry," he said. "The storage marketplace is almost identical to the server market of 10 years … Read more

GALWAY, Ireland--Think of the Multis Group as sort of the Antiques Roadshow of the server world.

The Galway, Ireland-based company specializes in refurbishing, and then selling, used servers. Refurbished PCs and servers are increasingly in vogue because remanufacturing represents a more environmentally efficient way to recycle old electronics than harvesting components from these old machines or melting them down for raw materials.

Multis, in fact, plans to open a 70,000-square-foot facility in Union City, Calif., later this month to refurbish and sell servers for North American customers. That marks a reversal in the usual U.S.-Ireland tech relationship. … Read more

Using book sales as surrogate tea leaves, Mike Hendrickson of the O'Reilly Radar finds life bleak for pretty much every major programming language except C#, Javascript, and Ruby. Java? It has plunged by 50 percent since 2003.

Sun Microsystems is hedging its bets on web scripting languages, recently adding Python experts to its fold. So perhaps Sun will weather the storm. Regardless, even despite its five-year slide, Java still holds the biggest share of the book-buying market, as this chart shows:… Read more

Correction 10:45 a.m. PST: This blog initially misspelled the name of one of the Python programmers hired by Sun. His name is Frank Wierzbicki.

Sun Microsystems has hired high-profile Python programmers Ted Leung and Frank Wierzbicki, stepping up its bet on open source and scripting languages.

Sun has already hired other open-source luminaries such as Debian Linux founder Ian Murdock, in an effort to capitalize on open source and diversify beyond its roots in Java and Solaris.

Python is one of several dynamic, or scripting, languages that have grown in popularity over the past several years. Developers are … Read more

Sun Microsystems continues to run amok in the open-source world, open-sourcing software in every direction. Today, it is in the direction of digital-archiving software, which has been used to capture and maintain "business images, records, consumer- and corporate-created digital content, e-science work, and high-performance computing (HPC) data for hundreds of years."

How does Sun expect to make money? In this case, it's the hardware, which makes a lot of sense:… Read more

Sun formally completed its acquisition of MySQL on Tuesday. I was fortunate to spend 15 minutes on the phone with Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Sun, after the press conference.

I asked him a range of questions about criticism of Sun over Linux, as well as whether the MySQL integration would be as prickly as Red Hat's acquisition of JBoss was at times.

As usual, Schwartz didn't disappoint.

The Linux Foundation's Amanda McPherson recently called you out over Sun's continued push for Solaris despite Linux's rise. Why aren't you giving up?… Read more

MENLO PARK, Calif.--It got delayed a few months, but a new, somewhat unusual supercomputer from Sun Microsystems will get formally unveiled next week.

The Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at the University of Texas will dedicate a Constellation System from Sun on February 22, said John Fowler, executive vice president of systems at Sun. He was speaking at the company's global media summit here Wednesday. (Technically, the computer started running earlier this month: the dedication is sort of like the official coming-out party.) After TACC, Sun hopes to start selling Constellations to more customers.

The linchpin of Constellation … Read more