There simply is no analogy between IBM/MSFT and MSFT/SUNW.
SUN will not and cannot replace MSFT. Even "Great Scott" admits this when he says that SUNW has not done well in the desktop arena and that MSFT is king.
SUNW desktop tools suck. I use them daily at work, and I also use MSFT at home (NT 4.0). There is no comparison.
BTW, I am a great fan of SUNW with regards to hardware and OS. They have some of the most reliable hw/os combination in the business. And
they still have a great following among software engineers, which is very important. Also, they stand to make a killing with their new StarFire, given that they can kick butt on Price/Performance and scalability. Also, they stand to do very well in the Web Server and Video Server markets.
Also, there seems to be an assumption that as Java takes off, so will SUNW. SUNW cannot and will not corner the market on Java applications. MSFT is much better poised to take advantage of Java, at least from a desktop applications/tools perspective. I base this not only on the track records, but also on current developments out of both companies. While SUNW does stand to make money in royalties from Java itself, it is not clear how much this will be, and they may be forced to give it over to standards in order for it to win the hearts and minds, which also minimizes Java's advantages to SUNW over others.
Don't get me wrong: I'm bullish on SUNW, but I'm also bullish on MSFT. |
