Comment by pjmlp
4 years ago
Also, who knows how it would have turned out if they had actually doubled down on OpenSTEP and DOE, instead of ramping them down in Java's favour.
Or if they had invested into AOT and JIT caching options for Java instead of leaving them to third parties.
Both options could have made Solaris more interesting, maybe.
It was really hard to resist the tidal wave of commodity x86 hardware at that point in time. Nobody did, not even Apple. And the server market got eaten by Linux, Solaris had no serious advantage anymore despite being a quality product.
It really is a different story now, though. There's room for more diversity, though they'd probably have to have made the switch to Linux.
Open sourcing Solaris earlier on before Linux ate the whole market -- or embracing Linux, or taking some hybrid approach, could maybe have kept them relevant.
Many would state that even today there are quite a few features that Solaris does much better than Linux, but so is "progress".