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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sandeep who wrote (47271)	6/26/2000 10:19:00 AM
From: almaxel	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74651

Sun's Java chief: The race has been won eWEEK As a former seminary student, Patricia Sueltz has no problem expressing passion for causes in which she believes. Java is Sueltz's latest passion, first as head of IBM's Java efforts and then, beginning last December, as president of Sun Microsystems Inc.'s (Nasdaq:SUNW - news) Software Products and Platforms group. At Sun's JavaOne conference in San Francisco earlier this month, Sueltz preached the Java gospel to eWEEK editors Rob O'Regan and Scot Petersen. eWEEK: Can the surge of development in Java be attributed at least in part to the uncertainty surrounding Microsoft? SUELTZ: No. I think it is certainty around people wanting accessibility to information anytime, anywhere, from any device. We are beyond whimsy [with Java], we are running our lives. eWEEK: So what's the strategy behind your pitch that developers can make a lot of money around Java? (See story.) SUELTZ: When Java was getting started, there was a lot of religious fervor around it. It was really us -- the Java community -- against Microsoft. There was a zealousness about it. dailynews.yahoo.com. Ralf

To: sandeep who wrote (47271)	6/26/2000 10:50:00 PM
From: ProDeath	Respond to of 74651

Been there, done that. I can't say I have ever gotten a useful resolution from Microsoft. I have had my time and that of others wasted by seemingly clueless flak-catchers from MS on a number of occasions. My overall impression is that the only genuine function of MS support is to collect data for MS development. I have received useful support and problem-specific code fixes from all of the following vendors: IBM, Sun, HP, Sybase, Oracle, Watcom, Digital Equipment, Compaq and others I don't recall at the moment. I've also been jerked around by tech support at some of these same companies. I can only say the latter of MS. I made most of my calls from Fortune 500 accounts, some with the most costly MS support agreements that could be had. Who's calling or how much they are paying doesn't seem to make much difference. My most memorable support experience was as follows. I called a SQL Server installation problem that was a known unfixed bug documented in the Microsoft Knowledge base. I had called it some months before and honestly wanted to see if a resolution had appeared since the last time I called; I had devised a work-around but it was a real PITA. I was told that my request really fell under paying support, as the firm at the time had not chosen to purchase such. I asked for a good look at what I would be getting and was told that would be fine, as I was representing an organization that would in all likelihood seek such an arrangement if it was found to be worthwhile. I proceeded to provide at support's request excruciatingly detailed descriptions of hardware, system configuration, installed DLLs, sequence of events, relevant log files, and so on. Not just once, but three times I had different folks from support request this information in the next day or so. This was followed by a week and a half of silence. One day, without as much as a courtesy call or a cover letter a copy of the knowledge base article appeared on my fax machine, to all appearances sent from an MS source. I already had that and had even mentioned it during the calls. I waited for further communication and never received any. That was it!. Guess what? We didn't purchase a support contract. What a surprise, huh? All I can say is: "Call MS support? What a lovely idea." Shame it doesn't work very well. In any case, I've generally found that vendor support won't get you very far in resolving problems in a timely fashion. I do believe that, with all respect to whatever your notion of a god might be, the principle that "God helps those who help themselves" has great applicability in my field.