Opinion: Is Sun getting into embedded Linux?

Take Linux and Sun Microsystems, mix in the telecommunications sector where Sun's Java already does so well, and what you get - industry rumors are saying - is a possible Sun acquisition of MontaVista Software. . . . .widely seen as the only profitable pure play Linux distribution that is still private. Not for long though, maybe.

Although industry rumors that MontaVista will be acquired by Sun Microsystems have been denied by Kelly Herrell, MontaVista's VP of strategic operations, MontaVista is the only financially viable pure-play Linux company that's still privately held and Sun might very well be contemplating buying either MontaVista or rival LynuxWorks.

Coincidentally, Herrell is one of several former Sun employees recently hired by MontaVista.

Mind you Sun has acquired a reputation recently for fueling speculation about possible uses of its substantial cash reserves to buy other companies - most recently (and notoriously) Novell. That particular rumor began just before LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in August after a remark to the press by Sun's president and COO Jonathan Schwartz.

"With our balance sheet," Schwartz said in an interview, "we're considering all our options."

"What would owning the operating system on which IBM is dependent be worth?" he continued, going on to add a comment that unleashed considerable resentment and disbelief among the Linux faithful: "History would suggest we look to Microsoft for comparisons," Schwartz remarked.

The open source community resented Sun's apparent attempt to toy with the idea of such an acquisition idea merely in order to steal the thunder from Novell's highly successful SUSE Linux distro. Certainly Sun's own Linux-based Java Desktop System got a huge publicity boost as a result of the rumor.

Is Sun genuinely considering acquisitions? The answer to that, undeniably, is yes. As befits a major public company with a long history in the technology industry - cash and marketable securities of US$7.61 billion, according to the latest figures - Sun is in good financial health, balance sheet wise. It has deep pockets right now.

But the likely real story in the Novell example is that Sun is horrified at the thought that someone else might buy Novell. Especially if that someone else turned out to be IBM.

Schwartz explained, in his widely-read blog at the time, that "if IBM preemptively acquires Novell/SUSE, the world changes: Linux enters the product portfolio of a patent litigator not known for being a social-movement company."

Perhaps his next blog will be about embedded Linux?