HISTORY OF DEV

February 24, 1982

Sun Microsystems founded

Andy Bechtolsheim, Vinod Khosla, Bill Joy, and Scott McNealy founded SunSun Microsystems — maker of Java, Solaris, and SPARC; acquired by Oracle in 2010. Microsystems on February 24, 1982 — to commercialize the Stanford University Network workstationA powerful desktop machine for technical work — between personal computers and minicomputers in price and capability..

What it was for

Sun MicrosystemsSunSun Microsystems — maker of Java, Solaris, and SPARC; acquired by Oracle in 2010. bet on UnixAn influential multitasking OS from the 1970s — files, pipes, and C shaped Linux, macOS, and BSD., open networking, and RISCReduced instruction set computer — a CPU design using simple, fast instructions. before those were industry defaults. NFS, JavaA portable language running on the JVM — dominant in enterprise servers, Android, and big data., SPARC, and the slogan "the network is the computer" came from this company — shaping how servers, developers, and enterprises built distributed systems through the dot-com era.

Companies

  • Sun Microsystems

Why it's here

SunSun Microsystems — maker of Java, Solaris, and SPARC; acquired by Oracle in 2010. turned Berkeley UnixAn influential multitasking OS from the 1970s — files, pipes, and C shaped Linux, macOS, and BSD. and networking research into a workstationA powerful desktop machine for technical work — between personal computers and minicomputers in price and capability. empire.

Why it mattered

It proved open protocols and UnixAn influential multitasking OS from the 1970s — files, pipes, and C shaped Linux, macOS, and BSD. could win in commercial computing.

What it solved

Engineers needed affordable networked UnixAn influential multitasking OS from the 1970s — files, pipes, and C shaped Linux, macOS, and BSD. machines, not locked proprietary minicomputers.

Media

  • Sun Microsystems
    ImageSun Microsystems

    User:Finlay McWalter, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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