San Francisco (CA) - Priority change at Sun Microsystems : As Tom’s Hardware Guide has learned, the company cut a significant number of employees from its payroll who previously had been involved in Linux projects.

Sun said the layoffs were planned and came as a result of streamlining efforts. It is unclear how many jobs were lost, but sources suggested that worldwide up to 2000 people in Sun’s Software organization were let go. Sun neither confirmed nor declined this figure.

In a statement Sun spokeswoman Stephanie Von Allmen however said that another reason of the cuts were prioritization efforts : "Notification was given on February 15 to those employees within Sun’s Software organization whose jobs are being eliminated as a result of Software’s prioritization and cost reduction efforts." She said the company does not intend to abandon Linux and it remained "committed to providing customers a choice by offering Linux on the server when a customer asks for it and on the desktop with the Sun Java Desktop System."

Despite the fact that Sun recently previewed upcoming versions of the Java Desktop System at LinuxWorld, Linux is likely to lose traction for the firm’s software strategy over time. Instead, Sun will increase its focus to promote its Solaris operating system, the sources said.