Actually Sun is just another proprietary vendor and McNealy is trying
to match every move made by Microsoft. Sun's allies (Netscape and
Oracle) are already moving towards Linux + Intel.
The reality is that the market sees Intel hardware as open and cheap,
Sun hardware as proprietary and expensive.
Put yourself in Ellison's shoes. Do you want to bet your future on a
pipsqueak like SUNW whose fanatical leader believes they can beat
Microsoft at the proprietary game when MSFT has strategic weapons like
Backoffice and Office to drive NT sales?
Nobody wants to use Solaris on a desktop or portable. Oracle tools
run on Windows. Linux is the only hope for a widespread alternative
to NT.
The PC world is very crowded (HWP, DELL, CPQ, IBM). HWP is doing
lousy. Sooner or later one will get squeezed out of the MSFT cartel
because of competitive pressures and will adopt Linux. Sun could
seize this opportunity now but of course they will not because of
margins, religion, etc.
Put yourself in a customers shoes. I want UNIX on Intel. Do I really
believe Sun The Hardware Company is going to support Solaris on Intel
when they really want to sell Sparc?
Solaris and Java are proprietary. Sun is stretched way to thin and is
trying to compete in way too many different areas (Operating systems,
microelectronics, applications, enterprise storage, workstations, thin
clients, servers, etc). The company is too small to be able to
suceed.
In a network economy who in their right mind could believe this is a
recipe for success? |
