There has been some good press lately, and I guess some bad press. I have been watching. And what I have noticed is a couple of important things that I believe have consequences for all of you.
First, HP. HP was was caught napping by sunw's entry into the high end unix space last year. But, as you may understand, there is a different HP out there now. They have been told to get more aggresive on unix. To get the message out. As I understand things now, HP is in a much better competitive position vis a vi starfire than ever before. HP is more prepared for 64 bit computing than sunw is. Every vendor sunw and hp talk to will be asking about I64. HP has a better STORY to tell them, just as Sunw did last year. The sands have shifted this year. That story can only improve since HP has been tuning their OS to i64 as well as their compilers. Software migration will be much easier for HP.
You laugh at DEC but that is a mistake. DEC already has a 64 bit UNIX with lots of applications. All of the biggies. It is being migrated to i64 as we fight. And surprise surprise, they are NOT buying this idea of standardizing on Solaris. Nor is HP. DEC in fact, as you know from Sequent deal, is aggresively courting UNIX vendors to their UNIX. So far they have one but more may follow. So UNIX is nowhere near getting standarized on Solaris. DEC will also have a much easier port to I64 than Sunw since the Alpha is similar in construct ot I64. They also were caught short by Sunw at the high end but DEC has, like HP, refocused on the high end, and will be much more competitive vis a vi starfire. And I beleive their I64 story is second to HP. Sorlaris is pulling up at third. And that is partly a result of their disdain for NT.
HP and DEC as you know, are agnostic when it comes to NT. They rightly offer companies a CHOICE. Imagine that. A choice. As I64, and this is central, starts gaining the mindshare and center stage, Sunw has to get covered with a more negative spin, rightly or wrongly.
So, 1997 was a honeymoon period for Sunw. In UNIX, your competition is no longer sleeping. And I really haven't even mentioned NT much, which, by the way, in v5 will scale better and offer a 64 bit version, for Alpha and I64, improving Microsofts enterprise position.
So all of you can shoot me, the messenger, and say whatever you want about me. But that would be ignoring the issues. I wonder how many of you will be able to address the ISSUES I brought up, without first trying to kill the messenger who brought you the issues? |
