'At GM, Sun may not be a presence on the desktop, but it's still a significant presence in the data center, where Sun servers run back-end applications," said Killeen.

'Sun software ranging from Solaris to the Sun Java Enterprise System also populates GM. Sun, Killeen said, noting that Sun has been a very good partner for a long time.

As Sun moves forward, it continues to face obstacles.

Java, once revolutionary, now competes with a multitude of scripting languages that are considered the easier choice for Web application development. These include, ironically, the similarly named JavaScript language and PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor).

And Sun is maintaining an independent streak as one of the few large vendors not participating in the Eclipse Foundation for open-source tooling and instead promotes its own rival NetBeans initiative.'