Sun said last week that while Sun currently has no definite plan to strike a deal with Microsoft to sell Windows, the vendor will consider it if customers and partners think it's a good idea.

"It depends on what our customers tell us to do," the executive says. "If we find enough customers that say we want you to have that type of relationship with Microsoft, [we will]."

All of Sun's chief hardware competitors, including Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and IBM, have OEM deals with Microsoft to sell Windows on their servers.

Inking an OEM deal with Microsoft would have pros and cons for Sun, the executive says. On one hand, it would give Sun access to Microsoft developers and salespeople to "more efficiently and more profitably distribute Windows on their Opteron servers," he says.

On the other hand, the move might muddle Sun's strategic commitment to Solaris as its core operating platform, a commitment from which company executives have not wavered for years.

By: DocMemory
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