SUN Microsystems never say goodbye ! (Part 2)

UNIX have been there for a very long time , And Sun innovations also have been there , Do you remember that optical mouse that runs on that metal pad in 1998? can it be considered the 1st Laser mouse , maybe.

I recently enjoyed reading the Tribute to Sun Microsystems web site , I think it is reflecting the Sun passion that runs within its internal staff. Specially the McNealy tagged posts.

Well , Do you think Oracle will keep on fueling Sun innovation engine , I hope so , At least they now got the OS that they can relay on as well as programming language that already runs in any device we have ,JAVA without doubt.

I recall old days of JAVA , when many customers used to ask me what is the link between Java and the coffee , I used to reply that it can be the best coffee you can drink, I believe Gosling the father of JAVA named it upon the JAVA island in Indonesia and it is where the capital of Indonesia, Jakarta is. Only beans that are Java can make up Java Coffee. It worth trying as its very special flavor. It is a strong, black, very sweet tasting coffee, and some people believe that it is the best coffee you can get. Well , if that is true then for sure Java got its place in every cup , i mean in every electronic device we have now.

Well , Solaris as well is part of the long way innovations of Sun , some of my friends used to think that Windows is older which is wrong , if we considered that MS-Dos is the 1st OS that is the foundation that windows by Microsoft started upon then MS-DOS 1.24 was released in June 1982. While Solaris 1st release was SunOS 1.0 in February 1982. its interesting to know that UNIX is much older than Dos 1st UNIX release was the Time-Sharing System First Edition (V1) November 1971, in fact Dos considered to be the mini customized version for PC from the UNIX.

The Funny thing that some of my customers were refusing to upgrade their Solaris version to the latest specially that it runs so smooth with no issues for a very long time , the only way to convince them was by showing them the release dates of the release they run on the systems , one of them was happy with his release till he discovers that it is there since he was in collage (10 years back ! ) that was the SunOS 4.1.1.

To be continued ...

SUN Microsystems never say goodbye ! (Part 1)

Lots of friends keep asking me: what do you think about Oracle acquisition to SUN?

The answer is not that easy ,but should i answer in the professional way as always or in a personal way !

Well , in here i think the personal way is better.


For more than 15 years I have been a fan of Sun. I can't forget the early days of the internet. When I used to connect to internet through a SHELL account to the only ISP server in Egypt ( 1994 ) at IDSC. And instead of going to Gopher or use PINE ,I just keep digging with my limited privilege shell account to find what this OS got to give ( SunOS).

A 2400 Budrate speed was efficient to create my 1st own shell scripts and executes it, The SunOS UNIX platform was a solid one at that time ( and still - now called Solaris ).
I still recalls how System Admin of the server used to monitor my shell whenever I log in so he is ready to kick me out whenever there is a slight resource utilization increases by my early dummy scripts. After a years we became a friends when I was the Sun support engineer who migrated all old servers to the new models.
It was amazing that i were logging to the Sparc5 workstation. ( mid-sized pizza box )! Yes it is true this machine where named as pizza box because it was same size of it. We upgraded those machines later on to the V880 servers ( an office refrigerator sized).

In many customer sites I was doing support to servers of SPARC 5 , and some of those servers were running non-stop from 1994 till 2003!
Its funny that in one day I had to do a clean up to one of those servers.That was the day i had to shutdown the server. Can you imagine what I found inside it! when i opened the cover for the 1st time i thought that a gray backing is inside the box and then i discovered that it was the dust have created a foam shaped backing covering all space inside the server. and a circular hole for the internal fan!
The customer took a photo for this server before clean up and after. I think those servers can be in Guinness Records for the uptime ( over 10 years ).
Anyway it was all reflecting a solid like a rock H/W and O/S with innovation in the design to be the smallest foot print for any UNIX server you can find in those days - do you remember how big the VAX machines was !

Anyway , I always admired Sun Technology , Specially for the TCP/IP part when Sun Servers used to be the routers of the early internet at that time. No wonder that Solaris starts up as a real router by default.

With lots of friends inside Sun Microsystems I sensed the unique culture that makes that company innovative. If you look on the History of Sun ( Stanford University Network) you will know that Scott McNealy ( Sun Co-founder and former CEO ) who have the enthusiasm with his colleges to make the 1st UNIX workstation. So innovation was the heart of SUN.

Well apart of this , Sun managed to stay for a long time ( 27 years ) as one of UNIX gate keepers. And that is a thing that have be respected when the rest of H/W vendors mixed UNIX and Windows to complete their portfolio.

IBM had AIX , HP had HP-UX , and Sun had Solaris. those are the dominant UNIX operating systems in IT industry now.

To be continued ....

A Start

Everyday pass in our life belongs to us , it becomes part of our history . It is our own choice to remember or forget but at the end it has something to give to us. So if i can't remember what I did yesterday then perhaps I can try to learn from Today.

I used to believe in the phrase " Today is the first day of the rest of my life ". And as I believe that rest of my life won't be longer so I will try to catch what is remaining of it.

I used to have time to express whatever I have in mind and then after time I read what I wrote and get impressed about who was writing that! Was it me at that time or someone else, That is happening to all of us. So it means that in certain times we can be someone else , or perhaps we just pick the talents that is hidden inside us in those times.

So I think that now i am trying to clean the dust over an old talent that I dropped long time ago. Well, no matter how i try but at least I have something to hold and use.

Whatever the outcome is , it will always be a Start.