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

To: Eugene Goodman who wrote (9471)	5/2/1998 2:33:00 PM
From: Nolan Toone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 64865

> why the obsession with MSFT? It's fight them now or fight them later. M$ (if left to their own devices) will take over EVERYTHING! While sun has the hype of Java on their side NOW is a good time to use it to KEEP M$ from being a competitor. Remember, sun got their start in the workstation/desktop for scientific area. They had their fair share of "No application? Then no hardware sale." Developers will only port to one or two platforms. That's the sweet spot for them. Sun just wants to make sure they are at LEAST the second.

To: Eugene Goodman who wrote (9471)	5/2/1998 11:33:00 PM
From: micromike	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 64865

Gene, it appears you don't understand technology companies. You can throw out all this analysis stuff if you think that the technology is going to gain market share which generate EPS. You know how a telephone works you pick up the device and call the person you want. Very simple no. Have you every picked up the phone and it didn't work? If you kept trying to use the phone and it didn't work how long would you stay with that phone company? If that was the only company that supplied the service obviously you can't change phone companies. I call this a monopoly. Now lets look into the future. There is this thing called a Network Computer. These devices rely on the server and the network to run. Now lets say you are a customer running this device. Once a week you can't use it. How would you feel about the service. What happens if you find another company that can deliver better service. I don't know about you but I would change service providers. For discussion purposes lets say the system that crashes a lot is using MS NT. The system that is very reliable is a Sun system. Now lets step back to present day so we can figure out why Sun isn't a cheerleader for MS. Lets look back on how a OS called Windows has a 85% to 90% market share in PC's considering it has to be one of the worst OS for this day and age. I always thought the best product should win market share. Maybe MS has a monopoly and uses predatory practices to gain these numbers considering their product isn't superior to the others. If this is the case then Sun has a problem with MS since it has superior technology but will not win market share against a company like MS and EPS will not grow. Also MS is trying to fragment Java which is the software that will make the NC work. JMHO Mike

To: Eugene Goodman who wrote (9471)	5/3/1998 1:04:00 PM
From: Michael L. Voorhees	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 64865

Eugene: the theory is this. Many of us do not want to be saddled with the infamous Micro$lop quality, pure and simple. Their products suck. Why is it so hard for you guys to understand that point. We're glad you've made money on their stock, that does not mean that all users are ignorant enough to settle for MSFT garbage (marketing hype aside, there truly is a point where the rubber meets the rode). Sit down with your bottled water, designer jeans, and "Where do you want to Go Today?" commercials and spin your wheels being 30% productive as a reasonable Unix user and quit calling it "MicroSoft obsessions". Their products suck as you, twisters, McPeelies, et al know. We're glad you're making money but we don't want your products and we want quality choices.

To: Eugene Goodman who wrote (9471)	5/4/1998 3:48:00 PM
From: cheryl williamson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 64865

Gene, Maybe you haven't heard of the great patron-saint of American common-sense, Harry S. Truman, by his quote perfectly applies to you and your investing strategy in SUNW stock. So you say SUNW is a hardware company? Not strictly. When SUNW charges more for its mid-line servers than PC's, why should a customer pay for SUNW? You pretty much get what you pay for with hardware. Every company benefits from cheaper hardware prices, so PC's sell for a fraction of SUNW servers & PC's have cpu's that are only a little slower. The reason is software & service. Customers who buy SUNW mid-level & Enterprise servers are buying reliability, scalability, much higher throughput, and full service & support. They're also paying for the SUNW brand. The real debate is over the ability of MSFT to deliver on all their promises to make NT workable on a level with Unix (more specifically Solaris). To date the answer has been a resounding "NO". I'm afraid INTC & CPQ can't be of any assistance here. All they can do is make cheaper & more powerful hardware. Guess what? The technology available to them is available to SUNW as well. So, SUNW has come out with low-end servers & workstations that sell for prices highly competitive with INTC-based machines AND they run Solaris and Java. Their site-licensing scheme with Solaris for workgroup servers and low-end Darwins makes it actually CHEAPER than Wintel's offering in the same class. So where's this "eroding the margins of SUNW workstations & servers by INTC" supposed to take place? We've been hearing this claptrap for the last year-and-a-half, and it just isn't happening. In fact, it looks like PC maker's are having a real problem with their own margins. INTC makes a gross profit of nearly $600/unit on their high-end Pentiums but only about $50/unit on the cheaper MMX chips. They need to sell higher end systems, but the bulk of the market has recently been focused on sub-$1000 PC's. INTC "retired" Andy Grove right after their last set of numbers came up short last month. They want to have a presence in the Enterprise, just like SUNW, so they are pinning their hopes on the jointly developed (w/HWP) Merced 64-bit chip. Well, I hate to disappoint the naysayers (like you), but high school cheerleader, Scott McNealy, managed to convince INTC to license 64-bit Solaris on the Merced. So if CPQ wants to get into the Enterprise computing market, they are going to have to sell Merced- based systems, and those systems are probably going to be running Solaris whether CPQ has commitments with MSFT or not. Fact is, SUNW has been working on 64-bit Solaris since 1995 & they're ready to port it to Merced (ETA Q1 1999). HWP has been working on 64-bit HPUX for about the same time and their dates keep slipping. Just last year someone explained to Bill Gates what 64-bit operating systems were & how much money he could make with them & he proclaimed that NT would definitely become a 64-bit operating system (some day, I'm sure). The difference is that SUNW is an engineering company, HWP used to be an engineering company, and MSFT is a marketer of software toys. So, if you believe in a company, it's because you understand and believe in their goals and the power (yes power) of their ideas, execution, and management. Since high-technology is beyond the understanding of most investors, they seem to rely on the Wall St. suits to tell them where to put their money. It's like the blind leading the blind. cheers, cherylw BTW: RTFN = Read The F* News, which is what any long-term investor should do.