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

To: Steve Lee who wrote (44122)	7/19/2001 1:01:25 PM
From: QwikSand	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 64865

JDN: I'd agree with Steve Lee. I didn't see you mention two processors, but if you want to do serious video eventually it's a good way to go, though certainly not an absolute necessity. However, as to memory, whenever anyone asks me "how much memory should I get", I have a stock answer: "As much as fits in the machine, or as much as you can afford, whichever is less." I haven't priced RDRAM, but they're giving SDRAM away practically for free these days. And you can't have too much memory in a computer any more than you can have too much money in your bank account. That is, as long as you don't buy some piece of crap like Windows ME, which M$FT artificially crippled to accept no more than 512MB...they "benefitted their customers" by making that decision for them. Windows 2000 will handle all the memory you throw at it plus 2 processors just fine. --QS

To: Steve Lee who wrote (44122)	7/19/2001 1:03:36 PM
From: Don Green	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 64865

So long, Java! How Sun screwed itself by suing Microsoft By David Coursey, AnchorDesk July 18, 2001 9:00 PM PT URL: zdnet.com Microsoft's decision to drop Java support with the release of Windows XP this fall should teach Sun Microsystems a lesson along the lines of that old saw: Be careful what you wish for, you just may get it. Microsoft seems to be using its monopoly power to block a competitor--but only because the competitor sued to make it so. Back when Sun was making it seem as though Java would end hunger and bring world peace, suing Microsoft over its Java implementation seemed like a good idea. Yet when its unlimited promise ran into hard reality, Java has become just what Bill Gates said it would: A nice programming language that makes it easier for real humans to write code. And that should have been enough. THIS IS WILDLY DIFFERENT from what was predicted by Sun, Java's creator. If its vision had played out, we'd all be living in Java Land today, rather than in a Windows World. And it would have been a windfall to write-once, run-anywhere Java developers, whose applications would work on any Java-supported operating system. That feature alone was supposed to level the playing field and make all operating systems and hardware architectures--including Sun's own--more or less equal. Customers would be free to mix and match without having to worry that their applications would no longer run. This would allow people to buy the least-expensive solution that met their needs, regardless of what they already owned. This seemed too good to be true. And it was--but not because Microsoft fouled up Java's potential. Rather, Sun never produced a version of Java that really lived up to the "write once, run anywhere" promise--not enough anyway to spark a revolution. That's not to diminish Java, which has become an important programming language. It's just to say it didn't become a way of life for the average computer user. AND BECAUSE OF THAT Microsoft's decision not to include Java with Windows XP--a decision forced by Sun through its lawsuit--will hurt Java and Sun and have no noticeable impact on Microsoft. Customers who need Java will be able to easily download it, just as they do Macromedia's Flash and other browser add-ons. Not much of a hassle. Web developers will, however, give a second thought to using Java. More of those teetering on the brink of not using it will choose to avoid Java, perhaps in favor of some Microsoft technology. THIS ALSO MOVES JAVA even farther from the spotlight, making it more a Sun technology than an industrywide initiative. This was happening anyway, but Sun's suit, which forced Microsoft's hand, only sped up the process. Java was a child prodigy that never reached its true potential--perhaps making it computing's answer to the late Orson Welles. Like Welles, Java suffered not just from external persecution, but from other, more essential problems. For tormentors--and remember both brought this on themselves--Welles had Hearst while Java had Microsoft. But the more serious problems were that Welles never recovered from his Citizen Kane setback, while Java never really delivered in the first place. Java is a great idea whose potential has never been reached. But when history makes its judgment as to why this occurred, it will be as more Sun's fault than anyone else's. Be careful what you wish for--in this case, Microsoft out of the Java business--it just might come true.