LIFE UNDER THE SUN: My 20-Year Journey at Sun Microsystems

by David Yen

The author David Yen spent 20 years at Sun Microsystems, Inc. In the 1990s, he led the development of Sun’s first- and second-generation multi-CPU SMP servers, which transformed Sun from a workstation company to a leading enterprise server company. As head of Sun’s Microelectronics group in 2001, he turned around Sun’s declining SPARC microprocessor business, introducing the industry’s first 8-core, 32-thread general-purpose processor in 2005 and developing it into a multi-billion dollar business. Sun was "the Google in the '90s" and highly regarded for its innovations even in the Silicon Valley. Founded in 1982 by Andy Bechtolsheim, Bill Joy, Scott McNealy, and Vinod Khosla and started as a workstation vendor using off-the-shelf components, Sun surpassed established information technology giants such as Digital Equipment Corporation, IBM and Hewlett-Packard in the '90s and became "the dot in .com" in that crazy late '90s era. In the twenty years that the author worked at Sun, he got to witness the rise and eventually the fall of the company. The author was not on the very top of the decision making layer, yet he was on a level high enough to know and sometimes influence what was going on. By documenting what he experienced and what his thoughts were at the time, the author believes he might have provided a piece of reading that young engineering graduates could get a preview of what they may experience, young business administration graduates could get a peek at thoughts of engineering management, contemporary industry veterans could get some smiles from time to time if what the author described triggered the reminiscence of their own, and readers outside of Silicon Valley could get a glimpse of how the Valley operates through various behind-the-scene stories.

Genres: Technology, History, Computers, Biography

246 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 20, 2018

Reviews

[David Given Schwarm · Rating 1 out of 5]

The idea of this book is fantasy. The execution is brutal—poorly written is an understatement. Just as all code needs review, all books need an editor. Disappointed.

[Alexey · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a slightly elegiac but also enlightening reading about the path of a man who has been lucky to live through raise and fall of Sun Microsystems, one of the pillars of Silicon Valley, one of the giants shaped our present in IT industry.

It also tells a story about the unavoidable tread of time, and mistakes people make trying to comprehend the future. An inside view on titanic shifts happened in the 90s and 00s.

[Marty Mallavibarrena]

I love this book but I have to clarify that is mostlhy for old-fashion tech guys like me :-)
20 years of memories about the Tech Sector in the USA (80's and 90's)
If you are a raving fun of vintage tech, this is your Book!

[Metin Ozsavran · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great account of Sun Microsystems, before it too lost to innovators dilemma problems. Written by an insider, well worth the time to read.

[Bugzmanov · Rating 4 out of 5]

it is alright

[Yiorgos Adamopoulos · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting memoir. It is worth to be read right after "The soul of a new machine"

[PF Albano · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I did not finish reading "Life Under the Sun" -reading slightly past the halfway mark- it wasn't because the book isn't good. On the contrary I found the book quite engrossing and enjoyable. I DNFed it because I wanted to take stock of my reading strategy. I have begun to realize the great truth that all readers must come to face: There are too many books and too little time. Although I don't race through books trying to fill a quantity quota (or maybe I do this a little bit), I do tend to read haphazardly, my book selection is arbitrary and unfocused; as if, somehow, I would be able to read all the books that I want to read. Also, I've become a hesitant rereader even though I find real value in rereading. Then there is the matter of my reading all the time although I do have a life beyond books, this is a direct outgrowth of wanting too read all the books - a foolish goal. So I have to pause and rethink my reading strategy.

Anyway, back to "My Life Under the Sun". It is an account of the career of David Yen in information technology. In talking about his journey we see the transition from minicomputers to microcomputers. David Yen was involved with multi-processor servers in Sun Microsystems and it was fascinating to see how one product line expanded and how a new product line was born. It is equally fascinating to read about David's experiences like his travels and the people he met.

David and the people he worked with had a great work ethic which is inspirational to read about. It was not that they worked x hours; it was that they cared for their work so that work did not seem like work.

I understand that a reason why I like this book so much is because I work in the information technology industry and therefore, I come in with a background on the topics David was talking about. Those who are unfamiliar with computer concepts might find this book less appealing. On the other hand, I would heartily recommend "Life Under the Sun" to I.T. industry workers like myself.

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[Nick Black · Rating 2 out of 5]

not only was this largely pointless, it was atrociously edited. Jeff Kelly becomes Jeff Kelley on the next page, and then Jeff Kell. the phrase "human achievement marble" shows up not once, but twice. very little down-in-the-dirt technology.