How high will Microsoft fly? Message Board

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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly?

MSFT 483.69

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Dec 11 3:59 PM EST

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To: JC Jaros who wrote (50656)	10/5/2000 8:59:21 AM
From: Bill Fischofer	Read Replies (3) of 74651

Re: Differing visions Au contraire. McNealy's vision has always been the same one that IBM has always had--that of the giant mainframe in the sky (conveniently enough supplied by SUNW). The crucial difference is that McNealy cleverly disparaged the term "mainframe" as "old" and "obsolete" while replacing it with a functionally equivalent "new" and "fresh" vision of the "enterprise server". Where IBM had the client sitting at a "dumb terminal", SUNW envisions equivalently dumb "Java client devices" which do little more than interact with the all-important central server while providing a glitzy user interface. This vision is diametrically opposed to the PC vision of personal empowerment and "umbilical-free" computing. Yes, like the early automobile, the PC is an overly complex device which required too much in the way of mechanical expertise on the part of the owner, but that is changing. Ironically, it took a 19 year old to wake up the PC industry and remind it of its real potential. Napster threatens not only the RIAA but the entire mainframe mindset which has dominated computing since its inception. As George Gilder has so often pointed out, the future is dumb networks with intelligence at the edges. Dumb clients, however slickly packaged, are ultimately a dead end. This is because the true "edge" of the network is and always will be individuals who think for themselves and prefer freedom--even at the price of a little chaos--to the sterility of central control.

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