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Technology Stocks : All About Sun Microsystems
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To: techtonicbull who wrote (39370)12/17/2000 7:16:21 PM
From: rudedog  Read Replies (1) of 64865
 
Tec - Ken Olsen was not a "stuffed shirt resistant to change" - just the opposite, he had the notion that a new style of computing could revolutionize the industry. He was an early proponent of networking and invested heavily in that area, to the huge benefit of DEC shareholders. He (along with Gordon Bell) created the minicomputer revolution which brought computing out of the hands of a select "priesthood" and made it a volume business.

The first 20 years of DEC's life were not unlike SUNW - they made bets on key technology in OS and networking, they built a huge and fiercely loyal following by providing great support for developers, and by opening up a lot of the hardware and software standards. In many ways DEC in the mid-70s was a lot more "open" than Sun is today in terms of IP and development.

It was not until the mid-80s, when DEC was 25 years old, that Ken and the team started to miss the ball. The biggest mistake they made was to underestimate the PC, but they also held onto their proprietary networking standards at the expense of what could have been early and big share in TCP/IP, and focused on killing off IBM when IBM was no longer the real competition.

A thorough study of DEC's first 30 years would be a valuable exercise for any SUNW investor - some of the parallels are creepy.
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