Dan,
I've enjoyed your insights into the NT/UNIX platforms. I'm persuaded that sunw will be a winner. The future of computing is in networking. Sun always kenw this. But I wonder why they won't be at comdex. It seems a pitty not to be promoting the NC and JAVA:
investors.com
In the case of the NC, its primary
promoter, Sun Microsystems Inc. of
Mountain View, Calif., won't even be
showing off its product. And Redmond,
Wash.-based Microsoft also won't be
showing the slimmed-down Net PC that it
and other firms are designing as an NC
competitor.
Microsoft and Sun staged a public
battle last month. Just as Sun unveiled
its network computer, Microsoft rushed
in with chip giant Intel Corp. of Santa
Clara, Calif., with its own concept.
Part of the NC's appeal is supposed to
be that they have lower operating costs
than PCs. Sun, which has spearheaded
the NC effort, claims upkeep costs can
be cut from $13,000 annually to $2,500
by going from PC to NC. But Sun
officials haven't attended Comdex shows
for several years and won't change
their plans this year, said Chief
Executive Scott McNealy.
''Comdex is not a good place to do
anything. I'm not going,'' McNealy
said. ''I avoid Comdex like the plague.
I think that's how flu season gets
started, right at Comdex.''
Show director Sell says that's too bad
for McNealy. ''Right now, there are
fewer people interested in
(Microsoft's) Net PCs than there are
interested in Sun's (NCs),'' Sell said.
Microsoft's reasons for not having its
Net PC at the show are simple - it has
no machine to show off. Patrick Fox,
group product manager for Microsoft,
says the company is leaving it up to PC
makers that have signed on to the Net
PC effort to build the machines.
---Matt |
