The Sun ain't gonna shine anymore

Just got back from a day out at Sun Microsystem's Developer Days gabfest where I was reminded that you can no longer make any money selling Java tools.

In fact Sun is now giving away almost everything it makes except the hardware. Do these vendors actually know what resellers do? We SELL stuff! Or we used to sell stuff.

The last thing we need is even more punters who only want to buy a bare bones box. We’ve learned to live with the Linux loonies, and some of them will actually shell out a few bucks for a nice CD with a picture of a penguin on the cover, but now we’re going to get inundated by unkempt goatee-wearing academic-types looking for blank boxes to load Sun’s Solaris.

Maybe we should try to seduce them with a ten dollar-download deal to update all their free stuff before they leave the shop. You’re right – their ADSL2+ links are faster than our excuse for broadband anyway.

The other thing I learned from Sun is that code-cutting is being outsourced, and this even extends to those who need Java programmers.

Yeah, I know, it’s old news that everyone gets their COBOL cut in India, but now I discover that TATA (they’re Indian – pay attention) is outsourcing its code-cutting because everyone in Bangalore is driving around in SUVs and living in McMansions – just like they do in Plumbton, the erstwhile code-cutting capital of western Sydney.

So where does an outsourcer go when it needs to outsource? Why, the Philippines and Malaysia of course. Right here on our doorstep and we don’t seem to have noticed.

According to “reliable sources”, big-end-of-town coding outfit Accenture now employs an army of Filipino wizards to generate all their Java code requirements. These bright young things are getting university educated in the way of all things open source and they’re almost guaranteed a job when they graduate.

So what’s our government doing about this? Bugger all as usual from what I can see, except of course, signing up for outsourcing deals with Indian suppliers instead of cutting out the middlemen and going straight to the nearest coding centre.

If the penguins are going to takeover, we could surely do worse than start our own first-rate zoo to house them and entice IT tourists to come and gawk.

Even penguins have to eat, even if they can stand around for 120-days playing football with an egg, between snacks.

So perhaps we can make a buck selling them bird seed, even if they insist on working for free. I just wish they weren’t so darn cute. Makes you feel so guilty whacking them over the head with a copy of Windows XP.

Gotta go! Customers waiting!