The Forbes article rehashes the basics, and features the
famous picture of Cowpland, his wife, and a lambourghini,
Some excerpts in paraphrase using their words:
The Suites (sidebar)
Microsoft's a tad quicker, both suffer bloat, WP is more elegant
but crankier (strange characters appear on screen), noteworthy:
WP drawing tools + more clip art, author prefers WP after years
of Word
Write and Run (sidebar on Java potential)
Java's slow in its current incarnation, we can't count MSFT + Intel
out, need more bandwidth, the basics of how a Java future
would be ("sweep away the corporate computing Tower of Babel")
but littered with IFs
Main article:
"But they didn't have Java" -- Cowpland on Borland's fall
"We know we won't make much of a dent in the Windows market,
although we'll keep attacking MSFT on every level. Java is
a blank slate, and we are going to get there first. Our
fundamental strategy is to run best on every platform, not
best on Windows, which will always be MSFT's agenda"
Article points out Cowpland made a fortune in Corel by
calling the last paradigm shift -- taking CorelDraw to
Windows-compatability when "the smart money was betting
on OS/ -- When Gates launched Windows 3.0 with much
fanfare in 1990, Corel's computer illustration program
was the only non-Microsoft application he could find
to demo with Windows." Looks like a similar strategy
with Java/Sun.
"We'll be in deep trouble" -- Cowpland on what will happen
to Corel if Java doesn't catch on.
******
On a purely superficial note, this is the first time I've
seen Cowpland, and he doesn't look anything like I thought.
Watch out for those geeky overachievers.
Mike |
