We can't solve problems we don't know about. Like the good justice said, sunlight's a good disinfectant.

Which is why you'll see something very interesting next week start to appear on Sun's web pages and throughout our on-line store. You'll start to see product reviews written by users. You'll see user defined ratings, right on our products. Just like book or product reviews at Amazon. We're starting with just a few products, but it'll ultimately extend all the way up to our highest end enterprise offerings.

What's the risk? That we're exposing ourselves to criticism? That we may have on display the fact that one product or another isn't perfect? (That our competitors may try to rate all our products?)

If Schwartz wants feedback, he doesn't even have to wait until his online comments and ratings system is up and running. In the comments section of this blog item, most of the remarks are supportive but a few commenters throw darts.

Like this:

Jonathon (sic) I like what Sun is about but I disagree that word of mouth is the way to sell product. That was fine in the old days, in the modern world word of mouth is no way enough.

And this:

At last SUN is realising their sales force and marketing people are doing nothing . Technology doesnot sell on its own. M$ is not sucessful because of its great products , it is because of its marketing & Sales force. best of technology products are not most sucessful, Apple, Lotus note, .. do we add SUN to the list .. Give a wake up call to your sales organisation

Sun has been one of the most open companies in technology in terms of allowing - encouraging, actually - its employees to blog, in allowing reader comments and in realigning its strategy. Of course, that hasn't prevented the company from having to go with a new CEO, reduce its workforce, and work overtime to try to win back investors.

But there are any number of other companies facing a long slog that wouldn't exactly welcome this kind of feedback.