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

To: Brian Sullivan who wrote (42447)	3/27/2001 10:55:43 PM
From: steve harris	Respond to of 64865

re:Windows XP: It's great Thanks Brian, but I'll pass. I've wasted too much money and time hoping the next release of MS Windows would be what I had hoped for. I'll stick with my Solaris and Linux systems. In my opinion, MS Office for $500? is a joke compared to Sun's Star Office package for free download or $40 at your local Best Buy or CompUSA. It will even run on MS. Good luck. steve sun.com

To: Brian Sullivan who wrote (42447)	3/28/2001 1:51:40 AM
From: QwikSand	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 64865

Windows XP: It's great. Right. Of course you conveniently neglect to mention the author: David Coursey, a veteran pocket-press Wintel booster and Sun basher who is no more an objective source of information than Steve Ballmer. I'm SOOOO sorry I didn't listen to his sage analysis back in 1994 and 1995, when he was saying how totally dead in the water Sun was. You know, the usual stuff about NT taking over right then and there. I'd have so many fewer dollars, and I would still be working, and I wouldn't feel so darned guilty all the time. By all means, take what he says as gospel. I think his column just about decided me to let Windows XP sit on the shelf for a couple of years till it works. Thanks for the post. --QS

To: Brian Sullivan who wrote (42447)	3/28/2001 12:29:35 PM
From: Brian Sullivan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 64865

All Hail HailStorm, Savior of the Web internetworld.com Last week, Microsoft introduced the first major component in its .Net project: HailStorm. Most of the debate after the announcement focused on two issues: whether this is an insidious plan for world domination and whether Microsoft can be trusted to keep users' data private and secure. To me, these are the least interesting questions. Of course Microsoft aims at world domination. And the company wouldn't be any worse than AOL or any of the other companies with the same goal. The entire world-domination scheme relies on enlisting users as the foot soldiers in the battle, so Microsoft has a great interest in defending users' privacy. Its ability to do so securely is certainly questionable, given Microsoft's recent security problems, but hopefully these exact problems will lead to an increased emphasis on Internet security in the coming years. I am much more interested in the impact of HailStorm on users and on Web services. This is where I see much potential to move the industry toward the vision that "the network is the user experience" (see useit.com ). We are currently on a path toward significantly reduced usability of the Web, as service providers realize that they cannot live off eyeballs but need to score some dollars every now and then. For example, Ask Jeeves is degrading its service by placing advertising in the middle of the answers (see internetworld.com ). HailStorm is the first significant step toward saving the Internet by providing it with a business model in the form of a payment infrastructure to charge users for services. The positive way of looking at this initiative is that it is delivering on my prediction last year that Web sites will soon start looking for paying customers (see useit.com ). Alternatively, the Bill-hating way of looking at HailStorm's payment scheme is that it is a means of luring developers away from other platforms. Forty years of history in the computer industry proves that the only way for a platform to succeed is to win the developers. So far, Microsoft has not been particularly successful in getting developers to ship significantly more Internet solutions for Windows than for other platforms. But HailStorm could change that, since it presents a simple choice: launch a service for HailStorm and get paid money, or target alternative platforms and get paid eyeballs. Money is a powerful attractor, so I know what the answer will be. Ultimately, users will benefit from the ability to pay for services. We need a way for Web sites to charge, and we need it fast. Otherwise, the quality of Web service will continue to degrade to the point that users will give up and allocate their attention elsewhere. Let's save the Web: Let's give it real money.