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Technology Stocks : All About Sun Microsystems -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Stormweaver who wrote (17526)	7/1/1999 9:35:00 PM
From: QwikSand	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 64865

2. More rigid ; less room for user specific customizations. Don't make me laugh, James. Last night I went to the home of relatives who had received an IBM Aptiva PC as a gift. It was loaded with Windows 98, SmartSuite, some anti-virus garbage, and IBM's internet software which had already taken the liberty of connecting them to the internet and signing them up for a modest monthly fee. They called me because they had a three-page single-spaced list of problems, almost all "simple" things that they couldn't figure out. These are college-educated people of average intelligence. Being used to working with computer professionals (back in the day when I was gainfully employed), I had no real feel for how utterly mystifying these retail white-box pieces of garbage are to the average person. Three different "toolbars" on the desktop offering a seemingly infinite number of useless functions and customizable options, an IBM ad as the wallpaper (these people had no idea that it could even be changed, let alone how to change it), software crashing all over the place ("This program has performed an illegal operation", then if you press "details" you get a register dump, EAX=0FFA3B6C etc. What's an "illegal operation"...did it take out somebody's appendix without a license?), the need to understand the difference between the user id that logs you onto an ISP's service and an email name, what to do when one of the shovelware CD ROM's didn't have an autoinf file on it so you had to explicitly run Setup but there were no instructions telling you to do so, and on and on and on. I didn't even scratch the surface. Try signing up for the contest on Martha Stewart's web page. As I left I felt absolutely sorry for these people. It was a genuinely sobering experience. I won't write messages like this any more because I know they're getting old. But Bill G. and Michael Dell and company have trained the world to accept garbage as product, and it has made them rich while giving many others high blood pressure. There are no two ways about it. You think people want 'customizable'? Give me a break. The thing with three buttons, a network wire and enough local processing power to make smart choices on people's behalf will win James. It's not even close. There's nothing to discuss. Your position doesn't exist, and neither does Michael Dell's (see my next post). Regards, --QwikSand

To: Stormweaver who wrote (17526)	7/2/1999 4:39:00 PM
From: cheryl williamson	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 64865

James, Let me summarize our recent correspondence o You said SUNW was making "dumb terminals" o I asked you to define "dumb terminal" and compare it to a SUNW product o You didn't define "dumb terminal" but maintained that the JavaStation is one that has been "gussied up" o I defined dumb terminal for you and maintained that it had nothing in common with the JavaStation. But the Winterm is an example of a dumb terminal o You admit that the Winterm was a failure but still persist in calling the JavaStation a dumb terminal anyway What can be concluded from this exchange so far?? - You have a low IQ - You have a thick skull (testa-dura) - You have an agenda to promote PC/MSFT technology My guess it all of the above apply and are commonly-seen characteristics of PC-types (including Gates). I don't know why I'm going to all this trouble, again, but here is a website that will explain to you how the JavaStation works. I suggest you READ IT. sun.com After reading this white paper, if you still think the JavaStation is a dumb terminal (like the Winterm), then I want a point-by-point comparison between the two, proving it. If you can't do that, don't bother responding to this post.