Scott McNealy is an IT industry idol. Not only did he co-found SUN Microsystems 25 years ago, but he is also devoted to open source technologies and is known for throwing high-profile barbs at competitors. In 2006, McNealy passed on his CEO job to Jonathan Schwartz, SUN's former COO, and continued as chairman of SUN Mircosystems and SUN Federal.

On April 19, one day before an open source advocate protested Bill Gates' visit to Tsinghua University in Beijing, McNealy, who lives in a Microsoft-free household and believes everyone should have a smart JAVA chip behind their ears, sat down with China Daily reporter Wang Xing to talk about his experiences.

Q: Why did you come China at the same time as Bill Gates? 

A: Well, he found out that I was coming here and he tried to come at the same time. In fact, I was coming here long before he decided to come, but I think it is just coincidence.

Q: You're an avid ice hockey player and a very good golfer. To what degree does your love of sport affect the way that you do business?

A: Our long held mantra at Sun has been to kick butt and have fun. I apply that same mantra when I hit the rink or the links.

Q: What is the style difference between you and Jonathan Schwartz?

A: Jonathan drinks wine, I drink beer. Jonathan likes a good dining experience, I view food as fuel. Other than that we have very similar philosophy about where the company will go and where the market opportunities are.

Q: What do you think is different between the Chinese IT market and other markets like the US or India?

A: It is the same everywhere. People have same problems: cooling, power consumption, space, complexity, cost, time to market or reliability - these are issues that are same everywhere.

I hate to break the news to the Chinese, but you are dealing with the problems that people are facing in Tokyo, New York, London and everywhere else.

Q: Despite the Chinese government's huge efforts in recent years, software piracy is still a serious problem. Do you think SUN's open software strategy could help solve it?

A: It's hard to pirate them when they are free and public on the Internet. That certainly solves that problem, doesn't it?

Q: What does open source do?

A: Eliminates the barrier to entry. It's free and you can just download it. So developers can make Solaris, java, open software everywhere they want, for free.

The cost of development is reduced, because we got all these developers and engineers around the world to looking at the code, writing drivers and tools, creating new functionalities for the platform so the cost of engineering is lower.

Q: But from a business standpoint, you still need to earn money, don't you?

A: We've created large Solaris communities and large Java communities. When people are going to production they always want a service contract. We can provide them really reasonably priced service.

Q: Do you regret any of the barbs you've hurled at competitors over the years?

A: No, I have fun. I think everybody who knows me knows that I enjoy life and I enjoy kneeling people. It's all done for theater and to give you guys something to write about.

I think people take life way too seriously. The famous economist once said in the long run we are all dead. You know I've often been accused for being emotional. But whatever, it's all theater.

(China Daily June 12, 2007)