Ideas are mergerproof

I'm a little disappointed about James Gosling recent entry to his blog because his article implies there is something dying. Of course there will be parts of Sun that will diminish. The stock symbol, old structures, and yes ... i think there will be some additional layoffs in functions that are somewhat redundant, but that's from the "Obvious" department.

But that's not the main point of this article. James posted an image with the Duke an the Linux pengiun at the grave of Sun. I hate this image. I really hate it because it gives the wrong impression.

You can't kill Sun. Sun is more than a company, it's a way to think, it's a way to work, it's a way to cooperate with other people, it's a way to collaborate with customers. Every Sun employee i've met in the last 8,5 years had this mindset deeply in her or his DNA. This is the very reason, why they work for Sun from my point of view. You can't remove the basic properties of their personality from them.

For example: I'm not at Sun for the money (albeit i using my god constitutional given right as an employee to complain from time to time that i'm earning more than i get ). I'm at Sun because of the people, for the ideas and i'm here because i liked the way of Sun to make business, when i was at the customer side of the desk.

A company doesn't consist out of it's stocks, a company is not just a name, a company isn't just the management and it vastly more than just money. At foremost It's a amalgam of people working together to reach a common target and earning money for the company on this way. As long the employees of Sun don't allow anybody to remove the mindset from Sun, nobody can kill Sun. And given the strength of this mindset, nobody is able to kill Sun by anything short of firing everyone. Or to say it with a slightly quote from "V for Vendetta" - "Ideas are mergerproof".

That said, i don't think Oracle will try to remove Sun's mindset. Oracle and Sun are really similar companies from my perspective. Of course there are differences, there are some different perspectives. But i can't think of smaller differences in mindset in the industry than between Sun and Oracle.

I think, Jonathan (when he talked about the clean slate) thought in the leaked mail more about the reluctance of people do adopt new processes because of "We made it always that way"... the reluctance to adopt the fact that you are a now a part of a larger company ... and the point that many people tend to stay in the old world, when they should think about the upcoming changes and how to make the best out of it. Jonathan spoke of a clean slate and some people interpreted it as "Forget what you are". But think about the point that the impression of a text can differ slightly given even slightest differences in the color of the slate.

The employees of both companies have the responsibility to combine the good sides of both companies to something even better. When Sun dies as an idea, it's our fault, the fault of the employees of Sun. Oracle already said it: We are the ones with the knowledge about the HW business ... they need us ... not because of the bodycount .... because of our ideas, mindset and our attitude, otherwise they would have acquired a different hardware company knowing how to move boxes, but not how to create hardware ....

An era ends, a new era starts ... let's start to work on it as soon as the official announcement is out to the world. The network is vast and infinite and so are the opportunities.

PS: I know that i'm a full blooded sunny and even an optimistic one ... you don't have to tell me about that Think about this article as some words of someone who has the great luck to do the things he likes and loves.