Sun simply refused to modify its Success Formula. Remember when the company launched Java? But leadership (McNeely) would not transition the company to its real source of value - software. Thus it let competitors, including Linux and Microsoft keep closing the price/performance gap. Too bad the company wouldn't use White Space to evolve on the strength of its innovations. This might appears as the single opinion from a point source, but believe me many of us

Sun Microsystems Autopsy: Death by Reverse Darwinism

http://danielnenni.com/2009/09/16/sun-microsystems-autopsy-death-by-reverse-darwinism/

Word around Sun is that Oracle teams have already done much of the work on overlaps and thousands -- yes, not 100s but 1000s are on the RIF list

I wiill post what I know ..

I would like some day work in Sun, thats is