H. Sun's history and vision Sun Microsystems, Inc. Sun was started by four individuals in their mid-twenties who envisioned a powerful desktop computer, meeting the requirements of the technical community, at a fraction of the cost of much larger machines. Sun's founders believed the computers the company produced should be based on open standards. This then-unique approach would allow customers to mix and match Sun systems with products made by other vendors. Customers would be freed from a proprietary lock-in to one company.
Open interfaces support competition and encourage innovation.
With interfaces open and available, virtually anyone can develop new and different implementations. The consumer decides which products are best. Since the company was founded in 1982, many changes have occurred in the information industry, and, in many respects Sun is a different, improved company today. Whereas our first products were network ready technical workstations, today we offer products and support services to enterprises of all sizes as they move forward in an era of the internet and network-centric computing. However, our corporate vision, to make the maximum computing power available to a broad user base through open technologies, remains unchanged.