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

To: Haim R. Branisteanu who wrote (9314)	4/26/1998 12:54:00 PM
From: Dan B.	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 64865

I'm a guy who's wishing SUNW the best. But I have to correct the statement that DOS was stolen. The creator of DOS was paid $50,000 for it. Forbes had a profile of him last year and he was and is quite happy with the deal.

To: Haim R. Branisteanu who wrote (9314)	4/26/1998 8:38:00 PM
From: Michael Watkins	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 64865

Haim - your post prompts me to comment... no offense intended, but I can't follow your argument or conclusions. Eric, my observation is that for some reason SUNW is not focused on what they intend to do with their technology. I'll agree with you there. Sloppy handling. Too much like Apple for too long. May likely have blown an incredible opportunity. On the other side MSFT for example is very focused on legally stealing or wrestling away technology and then go on a marketing blitz to gain monopolistic dominance. As you may remember 1. DOS was stolen (sure they just rented it only for a presentation) Your facts are off base on this one. Well documented reality says otherwise. 2. Icons / windows was stolen (oh yes they paid a token) Look and feel was an interesting debate for a long time. Lets not forget that Sun / X / and a whole bunch of other platforms and interfaces use a GUI with tiled windows and a mouse. Microsoft / Windows is not the only example. 3. Dbase2 nobody even remembers I wonder who's fault this was. Dbase had a real opportunity to flourish. This was before cheap SQL based client/server systems were readily and cheaply available. Nope, Ashton Tate screwed up; Borland got in over its head; Nantucket was bought by Computer Associates; FoxPro was bought by Microsoft (and didn't do all that well) -- and guess what, the entire X-Base community was sorta stalled out by all the m&A activity and confusion. In the mean time, someone smart thought that a SQL based client/server system that could be sold at a low cost would be appealing to people. It was and is. (Microsoft / Sybase SQL Server.) 4. Wordstar is it used anymore??? They picked the wrong platform. Another good example of why there is saftey in numbers. Remember the PSION? TRS-80? What killer apps ran on those? 5. Visicalc who are they ?? <ggg> Not just Visicalc either. SuperCalc also had a terrific chance to make it. If you were awake during this part of the personal computer industry you'd remember that it was Lotus, not Microsoft, that quickly came to dominate the spreadsheet industry. Only they didn't clue in that MS Windows would be popular, and missed the boat. Excel first came out flying on the Mac - by the time it hit Windows there were all sorts of people dying to use it. In the meantime Lotus and Borland and others futzed around with proprietory DOS extended memory management and GUI's that were all different than one another. Nope, not Microsoft's fault that they correctly identified that users would benefit from consistant look and feel across all their apps. 6. Netscape/Internet Oh well, it is now well documented I find it incredible that Microsoft almost missed the boat on the internet completely, the entire industry was wondering about their sensibilities, now they've come back and the industry has some different feelings. Talk about a turn-around. 7. LINUX - just a bounce of amateurs - squash them I think McNeally would benefit more from LINUX being squashed. I'm sure there aren't many at Microsoft or SUNW thinking about Linux. Conclusion for all - engage in stealing and turn a profit fast, your attorney will pave the way for future sucessfull piratic attempts!! <gggg> I don't know how you can support that conclusion. Most of the irony is that now MSFT is complaining about "its stolen software being used with out pay - e.g pirated" Oh well does not MSFT own substantial money to the writer of DOS?? for example?? I think Microsoft and all other vendors have every right to go after revenue. See my comment above re DOS. A fact's a fact. Cheers Michael