Hardly,
Good posting.
A few comments;
- I DON'T blame the programmers, nor did I had the intention.
I was a programmer myself for 10 years.
- You are right about the cash-thing. MSFT will recover one
way or the other. But first the dip. And it's just around
the corner. They were about the only software company that
missed the rise in the last few weeks!!!
- As long as MSFT spent cash to buy VISIO I sleep well. It is
not a strategic acquisition.
- Three years ago LE was at least thinking in the right
direction and made the brightest move in his life by
stop all CS-development to focus on the web.
- LE also had a little luck. When Oracle started building
databases, there was no web and no one could imagine how
important the role of the database would become. Most of the
people still don't get, but that's another story.
- I believe you when you say he was helped by the programmers,
but at least he listened and understood them.
- You sure do need other management-qualities to run a business.
But remember Apple. When Steve Jobs left, and the coke-kid stayed
Apple did very, very well. 1 or 2 years. After that...., well
we all now. When Steve came back. Well... we all now.
- In may 1995 I was a GIS-programmer (very data intensive).
I heard about the WWW. I realized that it meant 3 things
(in the long run, a little bit imagination doesn't do any harm);
1. no more software dependency,
2. no more hardware dependency,
3. no more distance.
In others words, NO MORE BOUNDARIES. A few days of good thinking
made me draw the conclusion that, from a logical point of view,
we could consider the connected computers as one. Sun called
it "the network is the computer", same principle.
When the LAN's were introduced they were first used to connect
systems, and sent files to eachother. A few months, quarters
or years later it lead to integration of the isle systems.
WWW is the same principle, but now on a world-wide scale.
(I agree, we had WAN's, but they were not profitable from
an economic view, and the WAN also had no solution to hardware
and software dependency.
Tried to explain that to toplevel-management of EDS. They still
don't get it. So be it! Had been a little frustrated since then,
made a little carrier and just waited. Now the time has come.
- Wrote an e-mail lately to my CEO to explain the MSFT/Oracle
thing. Two days ago I got an invitation to (help write) a
businessplan Oracle. Remember, we are the European company
of the year. Roof will go off the next few years. And I'm
going to have lots of fun. So be it.
Paul |
