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

To: cfimx who wrote (19008)	8/30/1999 3:57:00 PM
From: JDN	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 64865

Dear Twister: Perhaps this will help you in your research to understand SUNW!! JDN Sun Microsystems Acquires Office Software Maker Star Division Palo Alto, California, Aug. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Sun Microsystems Inc., the No. 4 maker of computer servers, acquired closely held Star Division Corp. to get word-processing and spreadsheet software that competes with Microsoft Corp. products. Terms weren't disclosed. Sun said it will give the software away so that Internet service providers, companies and universities can make it available to customers and students on the Web and other networks, the way they do today with e-mail and other applications. The effort is part of Sun's plan to make more personal computer functions available on the Internet, thereby boosting demand for its servers, the powerful machines that run computer networks. The Star Division software will run on servers and will be accessible through computers and eventually through mobile phones, electronic organizers and other devices, Sun said. ''Software is trending toward being rented or free,'' said John Loiacono, a vice president of marketing at Sun. Star Division, based in Fremont, California, was founded by Marco Boerries, a 31-year old entrepreneur who now works at Sun. Star's software has about 4 million users, Sun said. The plan could be a threat to Microsoft, Sun's archrival, if Sun can sign up enough users of Star Division's products. Microsoft Office accounts for 90 percent of the market for word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software. It's one of the company's fastest-growing products. Unlike Microsoft, though, Sun isn't planning to make money selling office-productivity software. Source Code The so-called source code of the Star products also will be available, giving people access to the building blocks of the software so they can alter it to fit their needs. Companies including BellSouth Corp. and schools such as Pennsylvania State University said they'll support the plan and have agreed to test the Star Division software. The plan is similar to one Sun has pursued with Java, its popular language for writing programs that will run on any computer. Sun makes Java available for free, only charging when another company or individual uses Java in a device that's being shipped to consumers. Sun is pursuing the same strategy with Jini, its software that lets different devices communicate. Other kinds of software have moved from the corporate computer to the Internet so that firms no longer have to buy and maintain programs on their own machines. It was only a matter of time before personal-productivity software including word- processing programs made the migration, Loiacono said. Sun plans to give further details on the Star Division plan at a press conference tomorrow in New York. The company's shares fell 15/16 to 75 1/4 in late trading. Aug/30/1999 15:21

To: cfimx who wrote (19008)	8/30/1999 4:23:00 PM
From: Stormweaver	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 64865

Not that up on the embedded scene. Outside of Sun boxes I'm not sure where else sparc-itecture is used. I do have an idea though - use the sparc box builtin Forth to create a router and compete with Cisco and friends. An ultra-sparc box with a few net cards could be the basis for a cheap router. The CPQ Alpha 21264 and soon to be released 21364 chips are setting the standards for pure horsepower; too bad they're dropping Alpha NT and still can't seem to get their act together. X86 remains the price/performance leader. n-way x86 architectures and the simple fact that you could run NT or Linux or Solaris or QNX or ... OS's on your X86 box makes it the most flexible; open iron. Cheers James