Oracle just might produce a netbook after acquiring Sun

Oracle sure has come a long way since its cardboard laptop days, but is it really ready to take on the likes of Acer, ASUS, HP and Dell in the netbook area? During a brief appearance at Sun's JavaOne conference today, Oracle's main man Larry Ellison proclaimed that his firm "might build a variety of devices as a result of its planned acquisition of Sun Microsystems, including netbooks." Sadly, there was absolutely no elaboration beyond that, but it's certainly interesting to think of what a netbook would look / feel like with a Sun flair to it. Who knows, maybe we won't even have to wonder in a few months.

[richb93 Posted Jun 2nd 2009 5:59PM]

First to fail.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 2nd 2009 6:02PM]

Sure...a $399 netbook. But Sun will charge you $10,000 a year to license the OS and then shut it down if you do not pay it on the day or their choosing. Extortionists.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 2nd 2009 6:22PM]

what Sun ?? you don't read much news.. (or the article for that matter)..

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 2nd 2009 8:18PM]

Really? ...because I'm pretty sure right there, within the article, in plain text is 'Sun'...as in Sun Microsystems. Wait....wait....yup, It's there. Ooooh, I see. You were reading Gizmodo.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 2nd 2009 8:53PM]

wow Brad - you are really funny !! Gizmodo - LOL !!

The article says that ORACLE might build a Netbook - not Sun Microsystems or Gizmodo or Troll or what ever you're reading.. Sun is DEAD - they won't be able to charge you for anything anymore once the acquisition is complete.. but hey !! you just keep paying I'm sure someone is happy to take your money!

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 2nd 2009 9:17PM]

Oooooh, ok! I'll bite!!

I really, really wish that I lived in your world. From what you just said, software licensing would become null if one company bought another. I would LOVE to do away with that pesky annual licensing fee that I pay Sun! That sure would be swell!

However in the real world where us grown-ups work, that really just isn't the case. Yes, I was well informed less than two months ago that Oracle would officially be acquiring Sun. While some things are going to change in the near future, my enterprise software is still going to work, I will still have to pay for it and unfortunately, Think Green-ism isn't going to automatically re-brand my software to say Oracle one mysterious day. ...but that definitely would be neato!

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 2nd 2009 6:01PM]

I will drool if they release a Solaris/SPARC netbook...

[Generic Posted Jun 2nd 2009 6:49PM]

Solaris, how cool is that!

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 2nd 2009 7:32PM]

Are there any low-power SPARC chips? I know they make/made 'low power' chips from the server point of view, but that's a bit different from 'low power' in netbooks (2W)...

My guess is that any Oracle/Sun netbook would be running Intel (or other x86) chips. Maybe it would at least use OpenSolaris though. (Of course my other guess is that this won't ever happen, wtf are they thinking of, etc.)

I liked the design of the old Sun workstations they had at my university... but I don't suppose any of the old product designers are left.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 4th 2009 10:15PM]

I have a relic of a sparc laptop made by a company called Tadpole (model Ultrabook IIi)... and get this... when it came to market, it cost around $27,000, no lie! amazinly, it still works.


http://www.pcw.co.uk/personal-computer-world/hardware/2044045/tadpole-rdi-ultrabook-lli

[EpsilonNot Posted Jun 2nd 2009 6:15PM]

OpenSolaris will go where Linux failed?

(Alright, calling Linux on the netbook a failure would be a huge overstatement, but whatever)

[Generic Posted Jun 2nd 2009 6:53PM]

Well your word 'failed' made me think of Solaris memory requirements. You some room for your apps.

http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/specs.jsp

[qrius Posted Jun 2nd 2009 6:28PM]

if oracle does a netbook, it'll come with bugs as "new features" and they'll charge you yearly support of $30k.

[Tired Posted Jun 2nd 2009 7:43PM]

Oooh, a SunRay thin client that worked as a netbook when you take it home might be cool.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 2nd 2009 9:43PM]

The headline made me actually wonder how much money Oracle has, until I realised it was Sun microsystems and not the "sun" they purchased.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 3rd 2009 2:13AM]

p-p-p-p-powerbook!!!

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 3rd 2009 4:41AM]

Oracle netbook?
Not interested.

Sun netbook?
Friggin yes!
Of course they wont let it run SPARC (although i hope so, out of sheer geekery), but if they manage to give it a distinctive design (like the sun workstations), and make it perfectly run OpenSolaris then im in.
Sun already has some nice thin clients, so the step towards a netbook wouldnt be too big.

[scape Posted Jun 3rd 2009 7:56AM]

oracle to own sun? which owns mysql, talk about a quick death to a wonderful free product...

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 3rd 2009 8:22AM]

i'd love to see a netbook running looking glass! 3d ui on top of a bsd base on an affordable system out of the box, that would just be cool!
http://www.sun.com/software/looking_glass/

[jsondag Posted Jun 3rd 2009 11:19AM]

Of course they can take them on, they will just have an ODM like Clevo, or Compal, build it for them. Just like all those others do, except ASUS of course.

Plus what uneducated consumer won't want a computer called an "Oracle".