Sun seeks HP Unix marriage

Sun Boss McNealy sends open letter to HP suggesting a combination of Unix technologies

In a move that could be seen as a meaningful approach or just sheer cheek, Sun chief executive Scott McNealy has sent an open email to HP boss Mark Hurd, suggesting the firms combine their respective versions of Unix.

In the message, McNealy suggests that: “HP has made strategic decisions that compel its customers, developers and partners to change: ending development of your enterprise servers based on PA-Risc, and relegating your operating system, HP-UX, to Itanium.”

He goes on to propose a converged Solaris and HP-UX, suggesting that the result would be shared investment, faster development and a more open, less risky future for HP customers.

This is not the first time Sun has offered HP an olive branch. Ever since Hurd took over at HP, McNealy has talked about the prospects for collaboration. Also, in recent business press articles he has suggested that keiretsu-style partnerships – where firms take stakes in each other -- are the way forward for global businesses.

However, the public nature of the offer to HP suggests the it may not be made in any great expectation of success.

“The way this is done suggests it’s a PR exercise but there is a serious message which is: where does the rise of Linux leave Unix customers,” said Rakesh Kumar, vice-president of analyst firm Gartner. “We’re seeing a lot of migrations and, as we see better vitualisation and tools, that will continue.”