Good-bye, Sun

In Februrary 1996, I came out to Sun Microsystems to interview for a job knowing only two things: that I wanted to do operating systems kernel development – and that I didn’t particularly want to work for Sun. I was right on the first count, but knew I was wrong on the second just moments into my first conversation with Jeff. He was emphatic that I should join him in forging the future, sharing both my enthusiasm for what was possible and my disdain for the broken, busted and boogered-up. Fourteen years later, I don’t for a moment regret my decision to join Jeff and Sun: we fostered an environment where the OS was viewed not as a regrettable drag on progress, but rather as a nexus of innovation – incubating technologies that today make a real difference in people’s lives.

In 2006, itching to try something new, Mike and I talked the company into taking the risk of allowing several of us to start Fishworks. That Sun supported our endeavor so enthusiastically was the company at its finest: empowering engineers to tackle hard problems, and inspiring them to bring innovative solutions to market. And with the budding success of the 7000 Series, I would like to believe that we made good on the company’s faith in us – and more generally on its belief in innovation as differentiator.

Now the time has come for me to venture again into something new – but this time it is to be beyond the company’s walls. This is obviously with mixed emotion; while I am excited about the future, it is very difficult for me personally to leave a company in which I have had such close relationships with so many. One of Sun’s greatest strengths was that we technologists were never discouraged from interacting directly and candidly with our customers and users, and many of our most important innovations came from these relationships. This symbiosis was critically important at several junctures of my own career, and I owe many of you a profound debt of gratitude – both for your counsel over the years, and for your willingness to bet your own business and livelihood on the technologies that I helped develop. You, like us, are innovators who love nothing more than great technology, and your steadfast faith in us means more to me than I can express; thank you.

As for my virtual address, it too is changing. This post will be my last at blogs.sun.com; in the future, you can find my blog at its new (permanent) home: http://dtrace.org/blogs/bmc (where comments on this entry will be open). As for e-mail, you can find me at the first letter of my first name concatenated with my last name at acm.org.

Thank you again for everything; take care – and stay in touch!