MyStack is the competitive way to play open source

With so many different Linux operating systems, middleware options, and database options out there, the new frame for competition is the "stack," in which support is offered for a collection of software platforms that can create a functioning enterprise system.

The best known is the LAMP stack -- Linux, Apache, MySQL, and the Perl/PHP/Python scripting system. But you can build others.

That's what Sun is looking at, in its search for a way to profit from open source. Instead of a LAMP stack, it's considering a SAPR stack -- Solaris, Apache, PostgreSQL, and the Rails scripting language.

For enterprise customers this may look interesting, especially the part about PostgreSQL. Of all the components in LAMP I hear most push-back in my interviews concerning mySQL -- the M or database piece. These critics tell me that mySQL is just not "enterprise class" (whatever that means). But they have much kinder words for PostgreSQL.

As to Rails, I haven't heard enough about it from advocates or critics to comment. Maybe you can.

The key, I think, for Sun is to pick winners, and not to be dogmatic. If a customer is committed to Linux instead of Solaris, are they ready for LAPR customers? Are they ready for real SAPPs -- folks who just gotta have PHP? The ability to write creative support contracts, and to deliver on the promises of those contracts, are going to be very important.

Now that Sun has jumped into the open source pool, how well can it swim? That's a story ZDNet reporters, writers, and readers will all be looking for.