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

To: John Chen who wrote (45775)	10/6/2001 3:16:43 PM
From: Kevin Rose	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 64865

I join John in explaining, not defending, MSFT. MSFT is like a natural phenomenon; say, a hurricane. You can stand in the middle of it and damn it; or you can learn to live with it. XP is important because it addresses several key technical weaknesses of previous MSFT OSs. What's the first thing that Steve Ballmer said on CNBC the other day when asked about the advantages of XP? Stability. It brings NT-like stability to Windows. For the average desktop environment, this is a key advantage. Another thing that XP brings is a convergence of multiple OS branches. NT and Windows merges finally the hydra. Software providers will finally be able to reduce their support matrix for the first time in years (since the corporate demise of Mac/Unix desktops). What is the XP impact? For corporations and end users: less maintenance, more uptime, fewer crashes, less headaches. This is the first post Windows 95 compelling event for switching OSs. As far as desktop Linux: outside of the ever-present 'rebellious minority', there is still too high of an entry cost (learning, conversion of data, interoperability, etc) for mass migration from MSFT OS to Linux. Linux will steal market share from Apple, but little from MSFT. So, the point is: don't fight tides or windmills. Don't invest in a company whose game plan depends on the demise of Microsoft. Invest in companies that can coexist and thrive in the real world: one that is not 100% Java and Linux. SUN can thrive and grow, for a while, in such an environment. But, their future past two years is uncertain. And if they continue to rage against the machine, they will hasten that demise.