I have just come back from an all company meeting of Sun Australia/NZ, and I must say that I am impressed by their commitment to open source. Coming in as part of the MySQL acquisition, there was a real concern that the open source mantra coming from Sun may not have any substance. Nothing could be further from the truth. In every presentation I've seen, both at this meeting and at other meetings, and in talking to other Sun employees, there is a real will and drive to make sure just about everything in the Sun portfolio is available as open source.

This has given me faith that the integration of MySQL into the stack has real synergies and buy-in from the entire company. It has also made me feel a lot more comfortable in coming from the open source heartland into a company that has multi-billion dollar revenues and tens of thousands of staff worldwide. Sure there will be teething problems. Sure there will need to be a shift of focus for some in the company. Sure there will be scepticism in the wider open source community. None of this will matter though, as open source is no longer the future, it is mainstream, it is now and it is starting to shift perceptions to match the reality on the ground. I feel privileged to be part of a company that has recognised that and is making some bold moves that will no doubt prove successful.

Why the title "Everything Under the Sun"? Have you looked at Sun's portfolio recently? There are very few gaps in what they can offer in the IT arena, from hardware to operating systems to software all the way up to enterprise solutions. I think it is going to be an interesting time.