It's the end of an era. I wonder if Sun's culture of making good stuff and being relatively open will survive in any form.
> assumptions that defined Sun as a workplace
Sun as a company may be dead, but the ideas and values can live on. It's up to the people in that culture to clarify those and live them. If they manage to do that, than Sun the company was the first era of Sun the culture and the acquisition not the end.
(Putting on my remote hypnosis glasses): Repeat after me: "Sun is a brand, Oracle is a company".