Poll: Sun Reaches Out to Linus

It seems these days more and more vendors have a vested interest in Linux. Microsoft recently hired away Tom Hanrahan from the Linux Foundation to head up its Linux interoperability efforts. Prior to that, Sun hired Ian Murdock, creator of Debian, for the newly created position of Chief Operating Officer, focusing on Solaris.

And now Sun is again reaching out to the Linux community, this time with an open letter from CEO Jonathan Schwartz to Linux Torvalds inviting him to consider both dinner and an “An OpenSolaris/Linux Mashup.” Jonathan’s suggestion is an excellent one, if a bit complex since some of the technology that makes Solaris unique isn’t openly available.

My question for the comments is how can both parties benefit from working together and do you trust Sun in its new role as an “Open Source company?”