Any thoughts on how this announcement by ORCL-SUNW tomorrow affect NOVL's NOS product sales, as well as MSFT NT? Will this have greater impact on the NT product which is more a network "application server", than NetWare a print, file and directory services NOS? TIA--
Sunday December 13 1:34 AM ET
Oracle, Sun Micro To Announce New Type Of Computer
By Duncan Martell
PALO ALTO, Calif. (Reuters) - Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq:ORCL - news) and Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq:SUNW - news), in a direct assault on their mutual archrival Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news), will announce Monday they will work together on a new type of computer that does not require an operating system, analysts and industry sources said.
With Microsoft, the world's largest software company, now mired in its antitrust case with government regulators, its competitors -- Sun, Oracle, America Online Inc. (NYSE:AOL - news) and others -- have begun to attack Microsoft more directly.
This latest assault from Sun and Oracle -- if their initiative bears fruit -- could obviate the need for the software giant's Windows NT operating system, designed for heavy-duty computing. NT competes primarily with Sun's own brand of the Unix operating system called Solaris and Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE:HWP - news)'s, called HP-UX.
''What Oracle and Sun are doing here is cutting out Microsoft,'' said Rob Enderle, an analyst with market research firm Giga Information Group. ''That would get them both excited and is reasonably compelling.''
On top of that, Enderle said, a recent survey conducted by his firm showed that dissatisfaction with Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft was running high among its corporate customers. Even so, Microsoft's Windows runs more than 80 percent of the world's personal computers and sales of its NT operating system are growing faster than its competitors.
''Dissatisfaction is extremely high with Microsoft, much higher than with anyone else,'' Enderle said. ''It looks like the market might respond very favorably to this.''
Operating system software basically runs a computer, enabling people to use programs such as word-processing, games and the like.
Officials for Palo Alto-based Sun, the world's largest maker of computer workstations, and Oracle, the largest database software company, declined to comment. A telephone conference call is scheduled for 10 a.m. Pacific time Monday (1300 EST, 1800 GMT) with Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison and Sun Chief Executive Scott McNealy.
When the products would be available was not clear.
Ellison, in a keynote address in November at the mammoth Comdex computer trade show in Las Vegas, outlined his plans to bundle Oracle's latest Internet friendly database, 8i, on computers that would bypass the need for Windows NT and any other operating system.
Ellision said then Redwood Shores, California-based Oracle would ship products by March, adding his company was already in talks with Sun, Hewlett Packard, Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE:CPQ - news) and Dell Computer Corp. (Nasdaq:DELL - news) about supplying the hardware for the deal.
Oracle's database now runs on top of Sun's operating system, NT and others. Although there will be no operating system, the computers and Oracle's software would still requires a ''microkernel,'' essentially a tiny piece of software to help Oracle's database software ''talk to'' the hardware.
Ellison did not specify what type of kernel the company would select, but candidates include kernels from operating systems software such as Linux, HP-UX, Solaris, System 10 from Apple Computer Inc. (Nasdaq:AAPL - news), FreeBSD and NetBSD.
Enderle said Oracle would most likely pick Sun's kernel, because it already has experience working with it and it is more powerful and easier to make it work in computers with multiple microprocessors, the brains of the devices.
''Sun and Oracle have united to say you don't need Bill Gates and Microsoft,'' said David Wu, an analyst with ABN Amro Chicago Corp. in San Francisco. ''You don't need more than a microkernel'' to run Oracle's database.
Oracle shares rose $2.06 to $37.25 on the Nasdaq, following stronger-than-expected fiscal second-quarter earnings announced Thursday. Sun shares rose $4.38 to $77.38.
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