Sun Microsystems chief executive Scott McNealy has stepped down. The company's current chief operating officer, 40 year-old Jonathan Schwartz, will take over.

Schwartz stressed during a conference call that Sun will not make any changes in its strategy. He added, however, that he intends to make changes in the company's leadership and continue a review of the firm's business lines.

"We will continue to focus on the core innovations that allow us to differentiate against our core competitors," said Schwartz.

"The one change this year is that we're very much focused on a comprehensive review of growth opportunities. This is not a comprehensive review of shrinking opportunities. We are allocating resources to the areas where we can grow."

As one of the concrete changes, chief technology officer Greg Papadopoulos will change roles, moving to executive vice president of research and development.

In a move intended to reflect the importance of R&D, Papadopoulos will oversee all Sun's R&D together with Schwartz.

McNealy co-founded the company in 1982. He will retain the post of chairman, which he described as a position of chief evangelist that involves a lot of talking to governments and major customers.