IBM was very close to acquiring Sun awhile back and I have to say I’d much rather have them in control of our good freind Sun. I realize this isn’t news per se, but I wanted to take some time to reflect on it because it’s really kind of sad and marks the end of an awesome era.

This post was provoked by me poking around the Wall Street Journal database on Proquest and looking at the headlines of the past four years or so relating to “Sun Microsystems Business/Org.” I managed to pull a few, and I’ll post them below but I’d like to note how short of a time ago it was that Sun was doing great and was still a giant in Silicon Valley, on the web and in server rooms and datacenters around the world.

Here’s a list of headlines from only the last year that caught my eye in the short time I had today. It’s ordered from oldest to newest so you can reflect on our fallen friend Sun Microsystems:

• Business Technology: Sun’s Profit Shines Amid Costs Cuts
• Business Technology: Sun Develops More Potent Chip for a New Business
• Google Begins to Distribute Sun’s StarOffice Software
• Sun Microsystems Inc.: CEO Got $14.1 Million In 2007 Compensation

Then came the crash last year around this time:

• Corporate News: Sun Micro Slashes Jobs — Fallen Silicon Valley Star to Shed Up to 6,000 More WorkersSun Posts $1.68 Billion Loss On Hefty Impairment ChargeSun CEO Faces Pressure Over IBM — Schwartz at Odds With McNealy Over Deal; Shares Tumble 23% After Takeover Talks Break
  
• DownCorporate News: Oracle, Sun Review Is Extended — Justice Department Seeks More Information on Licensing Rights for Java
• Fate of Sun’s Software Is Uncertain — Deal Gives Oracle Control of ‘Open Source’ Projects, MySQL Database

Well, if Oracle does monetize MySQL, I’m done with it. I’ll move over to one of the other free ones, and I’m sure a new project will be started. I really don’t like Oracle, to me they are the epitome of what is bad about huge corporations. Well, that’s kind of an overstatement, but my feelings are strong.