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

To: JC Jaros who wrote (50656)	10/5/2000 7:55:36 AM
From: Rusty Johnson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

Looking out of Windows (Slashdot) dmsmith writes: "Scheduled for October 20-22 in Melbourne, Australia, is the Alternative Computer Expo 2000 (ACE2K), the computer expo with no Windows. You can read a bit about it here at the Fairfax IT news site. Also you can go to their site www.ace2k.net." it.fairfax.com.au Linux will be well represented along with RISC operating systems and the heavy-duty QNX. "QNX is what runs most nuclear reactors in America and most nuclear submarines," Thomas says. According to Michael Czajka: "You're not going to run Windows on a nuclear submarine - not if you don't want a meltdown." Those who attend the expo are in for a slice of the future, he says. "You're going to see stuff you've never seen before. You're going to see what's going to be here next year and even 10 years from now," Czajka says. Thomas adds: "If you're prepared to look at some of the alternatives, there are things which you won't see on Windows for a while and even then you won't see it done as well." Thanks to slashdot.org

To: JC Jaros who wrote (50656)	10/5/2000 8:59:21 AM
From: Bill Fischofer	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 74651

Re: Differing visions Au contraire. McNealy's vision has always been the same one that IBM has always had--that of the giant mainframe in the sky (conveniently enough supplied by SUNW). The crucial difference is that McNealy cleverly disparaged the term "mainframe" as "old" and "obsolete" while replacing it with a functionally equivalent "new" and "fresh" vision of the "enterprise server". Where IBM had the client sitting at a "dumb terminal", SUNW envisions equivalently dumb "Java client devices" which do little more than interact with the all-important central server while providing a glitzy user interface. This vision is diametrically opposed to the PC vision of personal empowerment and "umbilical-free" computing. Yes, like the early automobile, the PC is an overly complex device which required too much in the way of mechanical expertise on the part of the owner, but that is changing. Ironically, it took a 19 year old to wake up the PC industry and remind it of its real potential. Napster threatens not only the RIAA but the entire mainframe mindset which has dominated computing since its inception. As George Gilder has so often pointed out, the future is dumb networks with intelligence at the edges. Dumb clients, however slickly packaged, are ultimately a dead end. This is because the true "edge" of the network is and always will be individuals who think for themselves and prefer freedom--even at the price of a little chaos--to the sterility of central control.