SI
SI
discoversearch

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor.  We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community.  If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.
Technology Stocks : BORL: Time to BUY! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Kashish King who wrote (7763)11/28/1997 8:30:00 AM
From: david thor  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 10836
 
<For those not aware of this, there's a little known company by the name of IBM which is going after Microsoft with both guns blazing at the same time its sales of Microsoft-compatible hardware and software are booming. The notebooks, semiconductors, hard-disks and other top-notch hardware offerings are doing rather well, too. The combination of Java and IBM simply boggles the mind.
>

Rod,

I just wanted to thank you for being the main reason I've gotten out of my "status quo" rut and started looking at CORBA, COM, MFC, etc. I do translations work for telephone central office switching machines and I discovered there's a whole other world out there. So how do you find the time to do programming and your messages here, which obviously are taking up a lot of time? I'm used to overlapping, but there never seems to be enough hours in the day to get things done anymore. Do you work on team projects or more individual stuff?

Regards,
Dave



To: Kashish King who wrote (7763)11/28/1997 10:03:00 AM
From: Paul Corbett  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 10836
 
" The combination of Java and IBM simply boggles the mind"

hmmm. maybe an IBM buyout of BORL? an IBM buyout of ORCL? an IBM buyout of SUNW?....

boggle...boggle...boggle...



To: Kashish King who wrote (7763)11/28/1997 10:45:00 AM
From: i-node  Read Replies (3) | Respond to of 10836
 
For those not aware of this, there's a little known company by the name of IBM which is going after Microsoft with both guns blazing at the same time its sales of Microsoft-compatible hardware and software are booming.

Well, Rod, for once you and I agree about something. IBM is a force to be reckoned with, and the new Lotus product may well become the first significant Java-based product. I stress "may well become" because I only know what I've read about it.

When the product is officially released, the official coffee coaster of Corporate America will be Microsoft Office CDs.

I'm not so sure this can happen so quickly. Maybe, but I'm not sure. Keep in mind that MS Office pricing when sold with new PCs is next to nothing. Also, people don't change office suites that readily. Take WP for example. WP 5.1 for DOS continues to be used in a large number of law offices even today--in many instances, even where the office is otherwise running Windows.

I believe a more likely scenario is that MSFT will get on the bandwagon as its sees the threat gaining momentum. There is still PLENTY of time for this.

The package is premised on a version of the old 80/20 rule: 80 percent of the use goes to only 20 percent of the software's functions.

More like 95/05, I'd say. We install networks in professional and accounting offices. In almost all instances, our customers prefer something simple -- Microsoft Works, for example, over the bulk of Microsoft Word. They don't use 90% of the crap that Word can do, and even if they DID have a use for it, they wouldn't be able to figure it out. When you put an MD in front of a word processor, you damned well better have the simplest one in existence, or you'll lose 'em every time (sorry, I know we've got an MD lurking around here -- present company excepted....)



To: Kashish King who wrote (7763)11/29/1997 3:05:00 AM
From: synchro  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 10836
 
There're still a lot of folks out there who remembered the last time IBM tried to take on IBM. Remember OS/2?

IBM has a lot of excellent technology. The problem is execution, marketing and let's not forget hubris.

.