SAMP makes sense for Sun

Sun's transformation into an open source company continued today with its launch of what it calls a SAMP stack.

SAMP consists of the three most popular open source application projects -- Apache/MySQL/Perl or PHP -- on top of Solaris Express, a developer version of the Solaris 10 OpenSolaris project.

When CEO Jonathan Schwartz took command of Sun he urged the community to grade Sun's commitment to open source based on its actions, not just rhetoric. So far I see little to fault him for, although your dissenting opinions are welcome.

Under Schwartz, Sun is trying to enable enterprise adoption of open source, along with the resulting cash flows that come from supporting ongoing installations and development. The idea is that support contracts will make up for lost software sales revenue, and an open source endorsement will jump-start the company's hardware business.

What is the bottom line result? Schwartz became Sun CEO in April 2006, almost a year ago now. At that time the stock was sitting at $4.98/share. Now it's at about $6.45.

Schwartz expressed pleasure over the most recent results on his blog, which followed Intel's announcement it would OEM Solaris and a $700 million sale of convertible notes to investment bankers KKR. Schwartz estimates that, with the KKR money, he has $5.5 billion in liquid assets to play with. Who says you need a crewcut to run a big company?

So how you like Sun now?