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

To: High-Tech East who wrote (7634)	2/10/1998 12:45:00 PM
From: cfimx	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 64865

Yours is a typical "kill the messenger" post from a dope who takes his cues from bill and hillary. I wouldn't expect people like you to "get it." And at 52, aren't you a little old to be behaving like an immature teen ager? Think about it. Javasoft: Ready To Implode? Hillary Rettig Javasoft will implode." That's the word from a senior executive at a major Java licensee. And it's not Microsoft Corp. Our source believes that the company is overreaching itself as it begins to focus development on the server. "It wants to do everything from the database to the directory services to the object model, but it's constantly late about releasing even its client-side technology," says our source. "It won't be able to keep up." He wouldn't go on the record, but Joe Herman, Microsoft's product manager for Internet platforms, would. "Sun is going to have a lot more trouble releasing technologies on the server because there will be a lot more opinions, from people at Oracle and IBM, on what should be done." And, Herman continues, Sun's partnerships will start to fray. "The same tension you see between Sun and Microsoft will now happen with other vendors," he predicts. Our anonymous source, who puts the anticipated implosion date at less than a year away, agrees. "Microsoft is just the tip of the iceberg." Have it our way...is what Microsoft is telling developers who want Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Java Foundation Classes (JFC) bundled with Internet Explorer 4 and other Microsoft products. Microsoft's Herman, who defends his company's use of proprietary Java extensions (or "enhancements," as he prefers to call them) because "we're increasing developers' choices," apparently uses a different criterion when the enhancement is JFC. "We consider it a middleware operating system that competes directly with Windows, and our policy is not to ship competing products," he says. This policy will hold even after shipment of the final release of Java Development Kit V. 1.2, expected this summer, he tells us, even though JFC will be included as part of the base product. Another reason to exclude JFC, Herman says, is that Microsoft's market research shows that developers don't want it. "On the client side, it's 98 percent Windows and Macintosh. Why would you use a least-common-denominator technology to work on those platforms?" In the interests of developer advocacy, we asked how many requests VARBusiness would have to compile to convince him that developers do, indeed, want bundled JFC. He laughed and replied, "That's a theoretical question, and I'm not going to answer it." He also offered his own challenge: "I defy anyone to come up with proof that Microsoft has done anything to impede programmers' productivity gains by closing off the spec."

To: High-Tech East who wrote (7634)	2/10/1998 12:56:00 PM
From: cAPSLOCK	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 64865

Hmm... I must disagree here. As much as I think Twister will be proved wrong about the direction of Sun, and it's continued growth, he is indeed NOT wrong about many of the things he has taken the time to point out. Sun is up against MSFT whether they want it or not (and it seems like they do), and this is a foe who has really never lost. It has either destroyed or absorbed anything of value in it's path. This is a very grave position for Sun. From the perspective of a SUNW bull (as I am) Twister does indeed often look spiteful, and emotional. I imagine we look like wide eyed fanatics to him. Even though I think he is wrong, I still try to see his point (My IQ, btw, might just be over your 125 figure :). I think Sun will survive because: 1. NT cannot approach Solaris. I cannot abide the old "Mac folks have always knows MACOS was better, and look what windows did to it, UNIX will be the same." argument. The fact of the matter (as anyone who has used NT, and Unix knows) Unix can do things that NT can only dream of. Windows 95 and OS8 are apples to apples. NT, and OS8, or Novell, or whatever is kinda apples to oranges. NT to Solaris is like comparing a Honda Civic to a Space Shuttle. You arent gonna take the Shuttle to the grocery store, but there is NO way that honda is goin to the moon... All the marketing and $$$ in the world cannot change this fact very quickly. ( although it could change) 2. JAVA I'm sorry. We have a new cyber religion now. I spose there is a alt.religion.java.blah.blah.blah now, and there are just gonna be separate camps on this issue. Twister thinks Java is gonna fizzle. I think it is gonna be EVERYWHERE in the next 10 years. Yes, it is kinda shakey right now, but would anyone mind me mentioning a Microsoft product still widely in use: MSDOS. Think of it's early days... 3. DOJ Face it. There will come a time. There has to. MSFT is the monopoly of this era. Arguments to the contrary are silly. About the only scenario I can see that will not end in MSFT being split up, would be if JAVA was able to gain enough foothold to take away business marketshare. Anyway. These are my opinions, and I expect to be ridiculed for them... No skin off my nose. I know I am right <vbg>. lovingly, cAPSLOCK