Sun Micro, Google Set Up Base Camp

Schmidt said that Google historically has not given specific numbers about its hardware. "We have been a Sun customer for some time," he said. "As part of this contract, we're going to be extending that."

The executives even dodged questions about whether their pact is aimed at taking on Microsoft, a longtime nemesis of Sun and competitor of Google. "We're going after revenue, growth, profits, customers," McNealy said.

But at the conclusion of the press conference, McNealy took a slightly more combative tone. He said some people are stuck in the old client-server model of which he believes Windows is a remnant. "People are still writing desktop-server applications," he said. "That's so last millennium."

By contrast, Sun and Google are moving in the direction of an open-source network services model in which applications are available via the Web. But while Google has become this millennium's Internet darling, even McNealy acknowledged Sun has had to climb its way back from its former glory days.

"We, a long time ago, were pretty hot. Then the bubble kind of burst," McNealy said. The company has been retooling and restrategizing, trying to win back big accounts in Wall Street, telecom and cable, he added. Sun also is now focused on the Web, with such customers as eBay(EBAY), Salesforce.com(CRM) and Google.

But with specifics on the Google agreement so limited, it's too early to say whether it represents one more step toward a comeback for Sun.

>To order reprints of this article, click here: Reprints