I received this by e-mail from SD Times.

Gervas
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In the excellent political drama "V for Vendetta," the protagonist, V,
blows up the Old Bailey, London's famous criminal court. This act of
defiance lays the groundwork for a popular rebellion against a fascist
regime. The government's PR department spins this disaster as merely
the completion of a long-planned demolition—city engineers, you see,
had long ago determined that the old stone building was structurally
unsound.

Yesterday, Sun announced that its president and COO, Jonathan
Schwartz, had been promoted to CEO, taking that title from founder
Scott McNealy. To quote the company's official statements, this
occurred "as a result of the company's on-going succession planning
process…today's announcement marks the culmination of a carefully
architected succession plan." Yeah, right.

The word on the street has long been that McNealy would be fired this
week due to the company's dreadful financial condition. Sure, the
company just announced a 21 percent revenue increase—largely due to
acquisitions—but even so, the company's losses continue to grow.
Meanwhile, the stock is flat and prospects dim.

What's next for Sun? Schwartz has been driving Sun's vision for
several years now, and I think it's fair to credit him with many of
the company's recent moves, including slashing the cost of software
(making things free, including Solaris), embracing AMD processors,
embracing open-source software, and buying storage and integration
companies StorageTek and SeeBeyond. Those bold moves, however, haven't
stemmed the flow of red ink.

If you think that Schwartz was on the right track, but that McNealy
was a roadblock, then this move heralds an optimistic future for Sun.
With the last of the "old guard" out of the way, then Schwartz is free
to reinvent Sun as he sees fit.

However, if you think that McNealy wasn't a roadblock, then Schwartz's
vision has been guiding the company over the past few years—and hasn't
worked. If the company continues on the same path as before, nothing
will change.

The board didn't merely promote Schwartz—it also left McNealy as
chairman. Perhaps the board thinks that Schwartz still needs adult
supervision. Maybe it means that McNealy won't give up the reins.
Either way, the ambiguity makes it look like the board simply
rearranged the deck chairs. (Of course, it's possible that McNealy's
new role is a temporary face-saving move during a transition period.)

There's a third option, of course: The board wants an exit strategy
and sees Schwartz, not McNealy, as the best man to sell the company.
McNealy, one of Sun's four founders, is emotionally wrapped up in his
company; he wants to save it, needs to save it. Schwartz, on the other
hand, has only been at Sun for a decade—and came there after selling
McNealy his old company, Lighthouse Design.

If you see McNealy leave his chairman position soon, and a sale of Sun
announced, don't be surprised, even if it's positioned as "the
culmination of a carefully architected plan."