Scott McNealy is an IT industry idol. Not only did he co-found
SUN Microsystems 25 years ago, but he is also devoted to open
source technologies and is known for throwing high-profile barbs at
competitors. In 2006, McNealy passed on his CEO job to Jonathan
Schwartz, SUN's former COO, and continued as chairman of SUN
Mircosystems and SUN Federal.
On April 19, one day before an open source advocate protested
Bill Gates' visit to Tsinghua University in Beijing, McNealy, who
lives in a Microsoft-free household and believes everyone should
have a smart JAVA chip behind their ears, sat down with China
Daily reporter Wang Xing to talk about his experiences.
Q: Why did you come China at the same time as
Bill Gates??
A: Well, he found out that I was coming here
and he tried to come at the same time. In fact, I was coming here
long before he decided to come, but I think it is just
coincidence.
Q: You're an avid ice hockey player and a very
good golfer. To what degree does your love of sport affect the way
that you do business?
A: Our long held mantra at Sun has been to kick
butt and have fun. I apply that same mantra when I hit the rink or
the links.
Q: What is the style difference between you and
Jonathan Schwartz?
A: Jonathan drinks wine, I drink beer. Jonathan
likes a good dining experience, I view food as fuel. Other than
that we have very similar philosophy about where the company will
go and where the market opportunities are.
Q: What do you think is different between the
Chinese IT market and other markets like the US or India?
A: It is the same everywhere. People have same
problems: cooling, power consumption, space, complexity, cost, time
to market or reliability - these are issues that are same
everywhere.
I hate to break the news to the Chinese, but you are dealing
with the problems that people are facing in Tokyo, New York, London
and everywhere else.
Q: Despite the Chinese government's huge
efforts in recent years, software piracy is still a serious
problem. Do you think SUN's open software strategy could help solve
it?
A: It's hard to pirate them when they are free
and public on the Internet. That certainly solves that problem,
doesn't it?
Q: What does open source do?
A: Eliminates the barrier to entry. It's free
and you can just download it. So developers can make Solaris, java,
open software everywhere they want, for free.
The cost of development is reduced, because we got all these
developers and engineers around the world to looking at the code,
writing drivers and tools, creating new functionalities for the
platform so the cost of engineering is lower.
Q: But from a business standpoint, you still
need to earn money, don't you?
A: We've created large Solaris communities and
large Java communities. When people are going to production they
always want a service contract. We can provide them really
reasonably priced service.
Q: Do you regret any of the barbs you've hurled
at competitors over the years?
A: No, I have fun. I think everybody who knows
me knows that I enjoy life and I enjoy kneeling people. It's all
done for theater and to give you guys something to write about.
I think people take life way too seriously. The famous economist
once said in the long run we are all dead. You know I've often been
accused for being emotional. But whatever, it's all theater.
(China Daily June 12, 2007)