Joyless Sun loses its founder

Sun Microsystems has announced that Bill Joy, its co-founder and chief scientist, is leaving the company.

Joy helped develop many Sun technologies, including its Java software, Sparc microprocessor architecture and the Solaris operating system.

Greg Papadopoulos, currently Sun's chief technology officer and executive vice president, will take over Joy's responsibilities. The company did not specify why the 48-year-old Joy is leaving or what his plans are. Sun representatives were not immediately available for comment.

Scott McNealy, Sun's CEO, said in a statement: "Bill will continue to be an inspiration to all innovators."

Joy co-founded Sun, originally an acronym for Stanford University Network, with McNealy in 1982. Before that, Joy was the designer of the Berkeley version of the Unix operating system and helped to pioneer the concept of open source.

Joy said in a statement: "For 21 years, I've enjoyed the opportunities for innovation provided to me at Sun, but I have decided the time is now right for me to move on to different challenges."

Mike Ricciuti writes for News.com