I would never claim MSFT or INTC to be in a vacuum. In the case of Mr. Gates, sees applications and opportunities where many don't; in other words, anticipating your opponent's next three steps before he's even made the first. This is not to say that MSFT has always been quick off the dime (a little co. called Netscape goosed them most recently), but you would have to admit that the speed in which MSFT mobilized to meet some of the challenges of the interntet was pretty amazing.
Microsoft would not be where it is today w/o forerunners like IBM and Bell Labs (and Radio Shack, but that's a story for another time), nor would they be where they are at this moment w/o contemporaries like Intel and even Netscape. I don't have any reason or basis to argue that Sun or Oracle did not pioneer many paths that are benefiting Intel and Microsoft, but the relationship is synergistic in many ways, and let's leave it at that.
As for Ellison's comment about wanting to send a few Maverick missiles into Bill Gates' living room, I don't have the (recent) issue of Forbes in which the quote was originally printed, but it appears again in the 400 Richest People in America special (p. 16). And I don't have the McNeely source material in front of me, so it wouldn't be good to misquote.
Harry Landsiedel makes some good points in #4463 re: Sun's refusal to incorportate the Wintel platform in their latest product designs. It really does not seem smart to be the lone ranger here, but again I submit that Gates and Grove are co-Kings of the Hill that all want to knock down, even those close to the top (e.g., McNeely, Ellison). |
