So as Sun is rolling out OpenSolaris and reminding people that Solaris was based on BSD and that it has contributed NFS, Java, OpenOffice, Grid Engine, NetBeans, and a lot of other projects to the open source community and goes to the United Nations to talk about the Participation Age, Sun is also rolling out new ads on billboards and in print and online media that highlight the fact that it believes in participation and sharing.
The technology to connect communities and fuel collaboration creates economic and social growth, explained Ingrid Van den Hoogen, vice president of brand and global communications at Sun in a statement launching the new campaign. Inventing and sharing those technologies has been the core tenet of Sun’s business since its inception.
This campaign demonstrates the power of sharing and delivers the clear message known by Sun’s employees, customers and partners for years – sharing grows markets and market growth benefits everyone. Of course, companies exist to make money, so all that sharing has to pan out at some point. Sun did pretty well with BSD Unix and NFS and has done reasonably well creating awareness of itself as a player in software with Java. But Java has not made Sun a lot of money, and free Solaris 10 and OpenSolaris might yet not, either. We’ll have to see.
