Dear Ellison,
I more or less agree with what you said, but disagree with a few things. Yeah, Microsoft sucks! I hate them, but you cannot argue with their marketing success. Gates is a genius at that and at organization, but not much else. The success of Microsoft has been in stealing other people's ideas, marketing them better and packaging them into a simple format that dominates most people's understanding of the computer industry.
Sun has never even come close to doing this. They have always been a very elite company in the computer field, and they have had the luxury of being able to be quiet because anyone who knew anything knew that Sun's products were the best. However, now they are in a very dangerous position. As Sun's philosophy becomes a reality (namely "the network is the computer"), they are having to market their products to those who don't know or care much about computers. Can they beat Microsoft at it own game? What scares me is that now that Sun is on the verge of winning in its vision of the computer's future, it will actually lose, because Microsoft will just steal it's paradigm and market it better, by using Pentium Pro servers and workstations and using NT and other products it is developing. That's what Microsoft has always done and always will do.
I am also concerned that Sun is spread out to thinly. It has the same revenues as Microsoft, but Microsoft has allies such as Intel, Compaq and Dell to help it steal Sun's ideas. Sun, meanwhile, is making everything - software, SPARC chips, workstations, servers, the new JAVA stations, etc. They are also spending a lot of time pushing Java, to push the idea that the computer is the network, but they don't realize Microsoft is coming in the backdoor.
On the good side of things, I really believe Java with work and will bring down the inefficiencies of computing. As a result, software will become less of a high margin product. No longer will every computer owner have to pay riduculous sums to get the limited number of programs Microsoft is offering. Windows 95, Excel, Word, etc. should no longer generate much revenue at all. I read a great article that said Lotus is making a lot of Java programs, including SpreadSheets. Now Novell is doing the same. And think of all those independent producers and small companies that are doing the same!!!!!
Just some ideas... Do you agree? Well, at least we can both probably agree that we hope Microsoft dies an ugly and brutal death ;)
-Charles |
