Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: cfimx who wrote (27212)	2/4/2000 2:54:00 PM
From: alydar	Respond to of 64865

I am going to purchase a $199 internet appliance for my mother from ORCL. This unit is purported to run on Linux OS and will be booted like a Nintendo game machine. Simple to use and should make some inroad into the business and residential sectors. You really need only one high powered pc in your home. Most of the time in the future will be spent online. Who needs a full OS? All, IMO, Bob.

To: cfimx who wrote (27212)	2/4/2000 3:31:00 PM
From: Thomas Mercer-Hursh	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 64865

Where is the evidence that people WANT to replace them? You might try talking to a few F1000 CIOs... Think about being faced with upgrading 3,000 or 10,000 or 30,000 PCs to W2K, knowing that many of them will have problem applications, incompatible hardware and software add-ons, underpowered machines, etc. Huge headache, huge bill, and every reason to believe that one will just have to do it all over again in two years. These people may not be rushing out to buy SunRays yet, mostly because they don't yet believe that it is possible to make the swap and achieve the same functionality, but you'ld better believe that it isn't their love of PCs that is keeping them going on the way they are!

To: cfimx who wrote (27212)	2/4/2000 4:24:00 PM
From: Charles Tutt	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 64865

twister, you've got it backwards. Microsoft is the interloper, seeking to have Windows accepted as a server OS. Why would they want to do that? <g> The PC is old, stale news, and rapidly becoming a low margin commodity business (if it isn't already). Pretty soon Dell, Compaq, etc. will be furiously trying to convert their assembly lines to produce Internet appliances, but there's no assurance they'll succeed. The Network Is the Computer. JMHO.

To: cfimx who wrote (27212)	2/4/2000 7:29:00 PM
From: QwikSand	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 64865

qwik, would you go into business tomorrow with a product that competes with coke or gillete? The answer is no. This statement goes right to the heart of our ongoing debate. It couldn't be summed up better. How can you compare Microsoft to Coke and Gillette? Because they all have the brand, the muscle, the market share, etc.? But this ignores the crucial difference. Beneath the brand, muscle and market share of Coke and Gillette is...nothing. They sell commodities that are absolutely fungible with those of their competitors. They may own patents (like the formula for Coke Classic syrup that you can't tell from Pepsi if you're blindfolded) but the patents are meaningless. The "technology" of soft drinks and razor blades hasn't really changed for a hundred years. These are pure marketing companies. They hypnotize you into buying a package because of its color. That is the entirety of their value add. What's in the package doesn't matter at all. Microsoft is not in that position. They are in an industry where the underlying technology changes so fast that they are forced to buy up little garage startups to keep from having these garage startups do to them what they did to IBM. twister, would you want to go into business with a product that competes against IBM? In 1980 the answer was no. But Bill Gates came up with a third answer: you don't have to. Technology is rendering IBM's products irrelevant. Go with the flow. The flow leads around them. People comfortable with PC's? The PC is a dead man walking and everybody in M$FT upper management knows it (unless they've already cashed out). The network is the computer. --QS