Co-founder Bill Joy To Leave Sun

Chief technology officer and executive VP Greg Papadopoulos will take on Joy's responsibilities, the company said in a statement. Sun chairman and CEO Scott McNealy said Joy will "continue to be an inspiration to all innovators."

Joy, 48, co-founded Sun Microsystems, which rose to become one of the world's largest suppliers of computers for business and science applications, in 1982. Earlier, he had developed the popular Berkeley version of the Unix operating system. During his tenure at Sun, Joy helped develop technologies including Java, an industry standard for writing software that runs on the Internet; Sun's Solaris version of Unix; and the Sparc microprocessor architecture. More recently, Joy had worked on Sun's JXTA software for computer networking. He lives in Aspen, Colo.

Spokespeople for Sun couldn't be reached for immediate comment.

This story courtesy of InformationWeek.