Sun now shipping servers with Windows Server

Three years ago, Sun Microsystems and Microsoft settled their disputes and promised to put everything behind them. Since then, there really hasn't been any news about the relationship between the two but apparently they've been working together and the fruit of their labor is coming. Sun's 64-bit servers will now ship with Microsoft's Windows Server 2003.

The two companies had once gone at each other's throats for several years over the JAVA platform which then escalated to Sun filing a private antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft. This issue turned about in the courts before Microsoft settled with Sun for £9.8 million and then was sued by Sun again not long afterwards.

The next lawsuit filed by Sun against Microsoft alleged that Microsoft had used uncompetitive practices in the OS market. This lawsuit was eventually settled in 2004 with Microsoft paying Sun £788 million and both agreeing to work towards some forms of interoperability.

All of this leads us to where we stand today with Sun agreeing to ship its servers with Microsoft operating systems on board. But that's not all they're the two are up to: they're collaborating on an IP television project and working on interoperability between virtualization of Windows Server on Solaris and vice versa.

"The Sun hardware platform is an excellent foundation for Windows-based enterprise solutions," said Bob Muglia, senior VP of Microsoft's server and tools division.

So up is down and left is now right in the world. Companies that have been notorious for biting at each other's throats are now agreeing and even more can be expected from the Sun and Microsoft collaboration. I don't know where the world is going but at least on the computer front, it's leading somewhere slightly more peaceful.

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