Sun needs Microsoft
ZDNet | at | by Mike
Given the current state of its business, Sun had everything to gain and nothing to lose when it swallowed its pride and joined the Microsoft team.
Sun Microsystems made decisions based on outdated information regarding the competitive landscape. Though Microsoft certainly did, and does, constitute a competitive threat, Sun's real challenge is the growth of a free and open source Unix alternative named Linux. The settlement hints that competitive advantage might be found in a common (albeit loose) front among vendors of proprietary software, each of whom are free to license each other's intellectual property.