Silicon Valley archaeology on a Sunday afternoon: Meta’s HQ was originally Sun Microsystems’, until Oracle bought Sun and Facebook bought the buildings. To make a statement, Facebook updated only the side of the old Sun Microsystems sign facing the road, leaving the decaying back of the sign untouched.
BTW, I’ve been fascinated by this old sign for some time now. The insides used to be much cruftier, as shown in these photos. Facebook/Meta have cleaned it up since then and fixed some bent metal in the old Sun sign.
Sun certainly used to be all over the place — and I remember when it was all/mostly at one place on Rengstorff! Here’s a sign on an old Google building that used to be an old Sun building.
Another fun fact: When Facebook moved into the old Sun buildings, they converted it to open-plan seating, tearing out all the old private offices.
Sep 10, 2023, 10:14 PM@detreville Internet collapses if Sun dies.
@detreville I donno, maybe a little hubris too
@detreville it was weirder than that. Inside those buildings were little hints here and there that this was once a Sun campus. Etched logos on glass partition walls, etc. Zuckerberg was quite explicit in explaining why they were left there - as a reminder of what can happen if you fail to keep innovating. This is not at all ironic.
Sep 11, 2023, 2:50 AM@rjwalsh insufferable
@rjwalsh @detreville Yeah this was said out loud as part of onboarding when I worked there. It’s extremely intentional to keep that sign as a sort of memento mori.
@detreville clarification for those playing along at home: this facility was once a Sun campus (sometimes called Sun Quentin) but was never Sun’s HQ. It is Meta’s HQ as a result of Facebook buying it.
@MartyFouts Thanks for the correction! I’d known it was an enormous new campus for Sun when it was built, but I’d simply assumed that all things Sun had moved there.
@detreville I worked at Sun in Sunnyvale back in the day when those signs were first put up. All was ok for a while until one day someone on the custodial staff challenged a person for ID and instead was shown a knife. Police showed up on scene and went office to office guns drawn and marching people out to check IDs.
@rjwalsh @detreville Wow. Did they ever find this person?
@csilverman @detreville I don’t think so, but that was ~25? years ago so the details are a bit hazy. I do remember that in the wake of this event the guidance was changed from “challenge back drafters for their badge” to “if you feel comfortable, challenge back drafters for their badge”.
@rjwalsh @detreville that sounds more reasonable. I've never been comfortable demanding ID from some unknown person; definitely puts employees in a difficult position.
Sep 11, 2023, 3:09 AM@detreville man who's stashing the hooch in the facebook sign
@detreville@discuss.systems I am almost certain that the Sun sign survives as an ego thing. 'Look how powerful we are compared to those who came before!'
@detreville had an office in bldg 14. no idea it was gone!
Sep 11, 2023, 1:53 AM@detreville Lazy!
@detreville @skinnylatte The story I heard was leaving it was on purpose to remind them about the cost of failure
@kalleboo @detreville @skinnylatte This was the official word, but who really knows?
Tesla HQ (Deer Creek Rd, Palo Alto) used to be HP Bldg 25, part of HP Labs. I worked there in the 80s
@wa7iut @detreville And now Tesla has taken over a big chunk of the HP Page Mill HQ.
desecration of sacred ground!!
Sep 11, 2023, 2:35 AM@detreville My one question, why were Sun’s campuses so spread out? From Menlo Park to Mountain View to Sunnyvale. Was it just a function of not enough office space in Silicon Valley at the time?
@joy Often you’re short on space and there’s not much available nearby. To avoid moving everyone to another town to consolidate, you get used to having offices all over. And when you finally do consolidate, you can run out of space again almost immediately.
Sep 11, 2023, 9:29 AM@detreville @joy Sun, Silicon Graphics, and Veritas were all expanding in that area in the '90s, and our buildings were intermixed. Probably other companies too, along with dozens of smaller companies; those are the three I remember.
@joy This is assuming a fast-growing company. A fast-failing company has its own problems. A steady-state company is the easy case for managing facilities, but who wants a steady-state company? (And of course, Joy, I realize you may know more about this than I do….)
Sep 11, 2023, 2:51 AM@detreville nah, this is just heads-on-pikes but no gore
@detreville “Sun Quentin” 🤣
@detreville Fun fact, when that campus was finished (the first time) within Sun it was known as “Sun Quentin” for its imposing concrete exterior and security fencing.
These pics of #Meta HQ sign helps explain:
a) everything you need to know about #MarkZuckerberg's approach to quality
b) why #SteveJobs and his Dad countersunk ALL the wood screws on the backside of their fence
@detreville New Frontend. Old Backend. Go figure.
@detreville was doing some workstation turn over in redwood City long time ago. I stopped and smoked a hooter in the parking lot (allegedly) when the offices were empty, and got a little misty. Was def sight seeing for me.
@detreville Or as it was known "Sun Quentin"
@detreville Shiny front on a decaying structure... Yep. That's software development.
@detreville @aka_pugs Somewhat relatedly, here’s an article I wrote about the Sun/Oracle signage on the Santa Clara (Agnews) campus. Amazingly, I’ve had an office on this campus continuously since 2001, first at Sun, then Oracle.
https://stuartmarks.wordpress.com/2011/03/06/the-last-signs-of-sun/
@detreville have you been to the Sports Basement in Sunnyvale? It was the old, old Fry’s electronics and used to have at least one of those little computer chip mascot signs in the restroom area. Always made me laugh. #Sunnyvale #fryselectronics #sfbayarea #imold
@detreville @jf_718 and in another 20 years hopefully the new owner will flip the sign and leave the decaying Meta side as a warning to future generations.
@detreville Every time I ride past this, I'm struck by the fact that Zuck will clean the back, but stops short of repairing or refinishing it.
Just an empty, damaged shell of a sign with a gaping hole on the western face in the shape of Sun Microsystems, and a pretty, superficial blue painting on the eastern face in the shape of Facebo^W Meta.
A blue veneer of advertising built on the infrastructure of engineering and innovation.
@detreville
Thank you for posting this. It's nice to think that whoever's occupying my old office space is reminded of what used to be there. I wonder if Eric Schmidt feels that way (he used to work in the same building).
Sep 11, 2023, 2:16 PM
Sep 11, 2023, 2:24 PM@detreville This reminded me of Steve Jobs’ comment about the carpenter using good wood for the back of the closet, even though no one would ever see it. Says so much about the 2 companies’ philosophies… @lisamelton
@detreville what was the point of the last edit? seems like alt text in 4th pic is gone.. nothing else I saw was different.
@colinstu I •think• I was twiddling the alt-text on the third picture to mention that the holes in the Sun sign originally had plastic inserts that lit up at night. I can still see the alt-text on the fourth picture — hey, it works on •my• machine — but I’ll double-check later.
@colinstu I’m just OCD enough that I can’t resist the opportunity to edit my posts for the benefit of future readers, especially since I was getting so many reposts for this one. I was •hoping• this wouldn’t mess up the experience for already-readers, but maybe I was wrong. My apologies!