Sun: Brew-It-Yourself Java?, Jul 05, 2006

The back and forth is emblematic of Sun's efforts to embrace the open-source movement. Executives like Phipps frequently point to the company's open-software roots in the 1980s, and Sun's major contributions to high-profile projects ranging from Mozilla's Firefox Web browser to the OpenOffice project to the Apache Web server.

An open-source project tries to break Cisco's lock on the $4 billion corporate router business.

When IBM announced last month that it is selling its PC business to China-based PC maker Lenovo, a fair bit of head scratching ensued. But here's an interesting scenario (and let me stress that it's a hypothetical one), courtesy of tech strategy consultant Boris Petrov, that would make the deal pay off in spades: IBM could use Lenovo to spread Linux in the fastest-growing PC market, China.

Perhaps IBM (IBM) got out of the PC business just in time. More companies will adopt Linux desktops or thin-client terminal technologies, saving themselves the headaches of administering Windows desktops.

It's a roundabout way to challenge Microsoft's Windows monopoly -- attempting to refashion the Web itself as an operating system where every bit of software is controlled through the browser.

Imagine the following scenario: "OK, ad people. We want you to sell this really cool technology that's going to change the world. But it's not really our product. You can't hold it. You can't see it. And, um, there's no way to take a picture of it or even really show what it is. Oh, did we mention that the future of our $80 billion company depends on it? Thanks."