At peace with Microsoft, Sun chief whips off the gloves over Red Hat

Sun Microsystems Inc.'s combative chief executive, Scott McNealy, fresh from resolving his long-running quarrel with archrival Microsoft Corp., has found a new target for his wrath: Linux software maker Red Hat Inc.

''We love Linux," said McNealy at yesterday's meeting of the Massachusetts Telecommunications Council in Newton. ''We just don't love Red Hat."

Sun Microsystems was one of the dominant computer companies of the late-1990s Internet boom. But it has lost nearly $4.5 billion over the past three years, hammered by an industrywide slump and growing competition from Linux.

Most Sun computers run Solaris, the company's own version of the high-powered Unix operating system. But many Solaris users have been moving to Linux to save money. Linux is an ''open source" operating system that was created by a worldwide network of volunteers and can be modified by those who use it. Linux, like other open-source products, can be obtained free of charge.

But McNealy says switching to Red Hat Linux is a false economy. Even though Linux itself is free, Red Hat charges high prices for customer service and support. ''You can run Solaris for 20 to 30 percent of the cost of 'free,' " McNealy said.

McNealy stressed that Linux wasn't the enemy. He noted that Sun is one of the leading contributors of free software to open-source projects, that Sun sells computers equipped with Linux, and that the company plans to release the next version of Solaris as an open-source product. ''Open source is not a threat," he said, just Red Hat. ''They're a competitor," McNealy said, ''and we're going to blow them out of the water if we can."

Earlier Sun crusades haven't worked out so well. During the 1990s, McNealy vowed that Sun's Java computing technology would eventually render Microsoft Windows obsolete. Later, Microsoft licensed Java, but made modifications to the code that Sun considered illegal. That began a lengthy series of contract and antitrust lawsuits.

This year, Sun mended fences with Microsoft, which paid Sun nearly $2 billion to settle their disputes. Now the two companies have formed a technology alliance aimed at ensuring their products work well together. During his talk, McNealy flashed an image of himself and Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer laughing together like old friends. ''There's a scene you probably never thought you'd see," McNealy quipped.

Still, McNealy, once famous for his anti-Microsoft insults, couldn't resist taking a few more jabs at the Redmond, Wash., giant. At one point, he referred to Microsoft's popular e-mail program Outlook as ''Lookout," because of its vulnerability to computer viruses.

Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com.