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Technology Stocks : IBM -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ToySoldier who wrote (3838)	9/16/1998 1:22:00 AM
From: treetopflier	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 8218

Toy, To put it simply, IBM doesn't give a rip about Microsoft or Intel -- and they don't need to in order to regain the desktop over time. I don't believe they need Novell to crush Wintel. Yes, the technical talent that Novell could bring to the table would help IBM. So might acquiring someone like Sybase, or BEA Systems, or Symantec. A lot of middleware talent went to BEAS from NOVL with Tuxedo. Until recently I would have agreed with you that IBM needs to address its Intel based offerings. Lately though, I've come to the realization that if you look 5-10 years out, it doesn't matter whether IBM is on Intel or not, because the desktop footprint will be altogether different. To get a sense for this take a look at Ellison's remarks in Computer World regarding iFS in Oracle 8i. IBM has the same gameplan as Oracle, as it relates to regaining the desktop, and it ain't with PCs and file servers. Soon IBM can offer a full set of competent Java based desktop apps from centralized servers of any type, and these servers have the features NOS has today and more. Whether the computer room is filled with mainframes, AS400s or RS6000s, the services can be the same when viewed from the desktop. That is what customers need and want. IBM doesn't need Intel chips. And it has plenty of places to offer print and file services from, for any size shop. Who could possibly want the tangle that the LAN environments have become? Their maintenance costs are horrendous. Microsoft should be worried about IBM. IBM, Sun, HP and Oracle are going to curtail its future growth rather dramatically over the next 5 years. The battle lines are clearly drawn and ultimately the economics of the infrastructure differences will decide. Give me a competent word processor, spreadsheet and EMAIL via a browser, along with a place to store my stuff and share it with others and this PC and all the file servers it looks at can take a hike. <IBM...re-establish themselves with some industry leading network infrastructure software systems> Are you serious? IBM is the dominant IT infrastructure vendor in the world today and always has been. Compared to IBM, Novell, Microsoft and Intel are a flash in the pan. I'll grant you IBM was slow to adopt TCP/IP over SNA, but that's about it. ttf