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

To: QwikSand who wrote (44477)	8/17/2001 8:33:24 AM
From: Joseph Pareti	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 64865

<http://www.zdnet.co.uk/itweek/columns/2001/31/banks.html> > > The going down of the Sun The days of an industry stalwart could be > numbered unless Sun stops resting on its laurels and recognises Intel's > Itanium line as a real threat, says Martin Banks > Here's a heretical question to take away with you on your summer holidays: > how long will it be before Sun implodes? > > This is, I'll admit, absolute speculation on my part, but I am easily old > enough to remember a time when we all thought Digital would go on forever, > despite the best efforts of its idiosyncratic leader, Ken Olsen. But that > industry giant died in the arms of Compaq, which has even seen fit to kill > off one of Digital's biggest technological legacies, the Alpha processor. > > At present Sun seems impregnable. Its large share of the high-end Unix > server market is likely to increase further, despite the best efforts of > Microsoft to convince the world that it is a high-end enterprise supplier. > But it may well be Microsoft's old partner in crime, Intel, that holds the > key to Sun's future. > > The imminent arrival of the 64bit Itanium processor is going to change the > world in which Sun operates, and I am not sure the company is ready for > it, or even aware of the dangers. In the same way that Digital's Olsen > scoffed at Unix, only to see it demolish his treasured VMS-based market, > so Sun can dismiss Itanium all it wants this will not stop the > inevitable. > > Yes, there are many press reports that suggest Itanium is not that good a > performer. This might well be true although Intel would dispute it but > it misses the fundamental point that Itanium is only the start of a chip > family, and its successor, McKinley, looks like being a very impressive > performer. > > Intel's 64bit processors will go from strength to strength. This cannot be > said for Sun's own processor family, the Risc-based UltraSparc, which is > beginning to show its age. Indeed, with Alpha and HP's PA-Risc family both > under a death sentence, Risc-based processor architectures seem to be on > the way out. Given the huge investment it now takes to be in the processor > business at all, Intel could win this particular battle by default anyway. > > > But the most important pointer to Sun's future can be found in > applications. A platform can only succeed if enough useful applications > are written for it. There may be a good business case for Linux being on > corporate desktops, but unless more office software is written for it, it > is unlikely to take off. The same is true for the IA-64 architecture > underpinning Itanium. > > Luckily for Intel, serious enterprise-oriented applications are starting > to appear. The announcement by BEA that it is working with Intel to > optimise the WebLogic applications server for the processor is a case in > point. > > Now BEA is a company that is growing into its future rather than trading > off its past, and its future has to be on the most prevalent server > platform to be found in the enterprise/ Internet arena. For now that is > still Sun, and the two companies have a close relationship. But in two > years' time? > > The IA-64 architecture may not be the best, but it will still be the one > major server manufacturers like IBM, Compaq, Dell, and HP will focus on. > Only Sun will refuse to play ball. > > Sun may well survive Apple has shown it is possible, but only until IBM > gives up on the PowerPC. But like Apple, Sun seems doomed to drift into a > cul-de-sac of its own making.

To: QwikSand who wrote (44477)	8/17/2001 10:57:11 AM
From: High-Tech East	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 64865

... to my friends here ...OFF-TOPIC ... One of my close friends e-mailed me the following story, parable or whatever you want to call it ... enjoy Ken Wilson A philosophy professor stood before his class and had some items in front of him. When class began, wordlessly he picked up a large empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with rocks right to the top, rocks about 2-inches in diameter. He then asked the students if the jar was full? They agreed that it was. So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them in to the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles, of course, rolled into the open areas between the rocks. The students laughed. He asked his students again if the jar was full? They agreed that yes, it was. The professor then picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. "Now," said the professor, "I want you to recognize that this is your life. The rocks are the important things - your family, your partner, your health, your children - anything that is so important to you that if it were lost, you would be nearly destroyed. The pebbles are the other things in life that matter, but on a smaller scale. The pebbles represent things like your job, your house, and your car. The sand is everything else. The small stuff. If you put the sand or the pebbles into the jar first, there is no room for the rocks. The same goes for your life. If you spend all your energy and time on the small stuff, material things, you will never have room for the things that are truly most important. Pay attention to the things that are critical in your life. Play with your children. Take your partner out dancing. There will always be time to go to work, clean the house, give a dinner party and fix the disposal." Take care of the rocks first - the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just pebbles and sand.