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

To: QwikSand who wrote (34898)	8/30/2000 12:27:35 AM
From: chic_hearne	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 64865

Re: Solaris on x86-64 QwikSand, It's too early to expect anything or not yet. A chip announcement does not a solution make. Who's signed up to build AMD x86-64 boxes? No one as far as I know, but if there's SMP boards and chips, it won't take long to build boxes as long as the performance looks good and there's demand. By demand, I mean applications or uses for the boxes that makes sense. Of those, who will be happy to rely on Linux as the OS for it and who will want something more comprehensive? I really think you are underestimating Linux, not just by this comment, but by all your comments the past few months. I've read that one of the reasons Sun is where it's at today is because 10 years ago universities all had Sun servers. I went to a school that was all RS/6000 and AS/400, we didn't have any Sun boxes. Guess what I'm working on? Linux was huge at our school, and many other schools that I have friends at. Schools like Linux because it is free and the boxes are cheap. Students like it because you can dig into the code-- opposite of Windows. This is the reason why it seems like the Linux developers can get things done 10 times faster than Windows developers. Universities are graduating tons of Linux gurus these days, it's only a matter of time before it starts to have a big impact. Is Microsoft going to port a second* version of W2k-64 to this thing?* God I hope not, at least for servers, it will just be a distraction to the Linux community. This thing will be better off with no Microsoft support (in the long run). I hate to read too much into it, but Sun's comment just seems like a slam at Intel, maybe Microsoft also. "Sun Microsystems’ Solaris team is very excited about AMD’s x86-64 technology. We applaud AMD’s ISV compatibility and upgrade strategy as well as their open technology announcement today. We will be following their progress closely as this technology comes to market," said Anil Gadre, vice president and general manager for Solaris at Sun Microsystems. I can't see any reason for Sun to support this platform. From a hardware perspective, if they get Solaris stable, it will just cut into their own sales. It's going to be a commodity platform, so it will be cheaper than Sun boxes. The only thing that would make sense is if they could make money off of the software sales. Also, my guess is that Sun likes to start people off with a small system and then lead them up to a E10000. Maybe they would be looking to AMD to get people on Solaris, only to sell them a big Sun system down the road? That's just pure speculation on my part, but at this point it just doesn't make sense to me if they are serious about getting Solaris on x86-64. Therefore, I chalk it up as a slam at Intel and Microsoft, nothing more. I will be shocked if anything ever comes out of this. For the x86-64 platform to even have a chance, it will have to be out on time and at the 2 Ghz speed they have already stated. This may be a challenge in itself, I can't remember the last time a chip was out on time by any company. We'll see, but it's all talk and no substance as far as I'm concerned. chic