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

To: paul who wrote (16242)	5/8/1999 12:42:00 AM
From: Rusty Johnson	Respond to of 64865

Interesting response to a James Coates Chicago Tribune editorial that some may find interesting (and entertaining). pages.cthome.net A sample: "Linux and other rebellions" by Diane Gartner Let's look at the first example of how Coates is more reactionary than rebellious: "Microsoft Windows 2000, which made its debut in Chicago at last week's Comdex computer show, is a much more useful personal computer operating system than the dinky feature-weak, application-starved flavor of home-brewed Unix known as Linux." Hmm, perhaps we had better straighten out Coates' use of the operating system name. The "Windows 2000" beta that was displayed at Comdex was in fact a version of NT. Unfortunately, Microsoft has used that same name of "Windows 2000" to refer on-and-off to Win98 and NT. For the sake of avoiding such confusion over the given features offered by the given future release, we'll be on safer ground if we refer to this Windows product as NT. NT aka Windows 2000 or whatever name that Microsoft will bestow upon its next release, does not qualify as a full-featured Network Operating System [NOS], because it's too small to manage the ordinary mix of desktops, local networks, servers and multiple platforms, etc., found in a typical business or institution. Instead, it's used mostly as a low-speed, low-performance application server or file server, in settings where NT shouldn't be performing any "mission critical" tasks. But that's the point where we run into the inherent contradiction of Windows NT. This odd-sized operating system is far too large and costly for what Coates needs for his desktop-- unless he actually believes that he must have his own personal server just to post an e-mail message or handle a spreadsheet! We might sum up the size 'n' power of NT by saying that it's too clunky for the desktop, but too "dinky" for the network. That's exactly why MSFT has been trying to remold NT into the image of Win9x-- and thus re-market it suddenly as a "useful personal computer operating system" to sell [again] to current customers who never seem to get tired of buying Windows over & over. Coates apparently cannot face the truth that Windows NT isn't even a fraction as efficient as full NOSs such as Unix, OS/2, Linux, NetWare, Solaris and BSD among others. Perhaps Coates should consider using one of them, or... just try using desktop systems such as PC-DOS, PTS DOS or OpenDOS, without the Win9x graphic shell on top of the DOS kernal. If he disfavors DOS unless it has Win9x on top of it, then he could try one of the desktop OSs such as BeOS, Amiga, OS/2 Warp, Mac, QNX, etc..

To: paul who wrote (16242)	5/8/1999 1:18:00 AM
From: QwikSand	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 64865

...I guess Sun was more interested in building the plumbing for the little thing known as the Internet... Actually, Sun put a press release on their web site in early '98 that they were porting Solaris to Merced with Intel's help after making some kind of deal, and put out another PR a few months ago (as did SCO regarding their own OS) that they had a laboratory version of Solaris/Merced running on the software Merced-emulator setup. Sun took the whole Merced issue more seriously than HP or Compaq. Maybe the next major Wintel product to ship to customers will be the Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 783 with the Y3K bug fixed! Meanwhile Sun will have their second generation 64-bit chip out in 1999 with a top-quality operating system that fully supports it on huge multiprocessors, HP will be shipping ever more streamlined toner cartridges, and Compaq/DEC will still be doing a CEO search, trying to find a guy whose face looks sympatico in a RNWK streaming video off their e-commerce site (I hear Fred Rogers of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood has the inside track for the gig). Which will run on a Sun server, of course. Hot damn, that proprietary iron is looking better all the time. (Except for Windows CE of course...that's a serious threat. <g>) Regards, --QwikSand

To: paul who wrote (16242)	5/10/1999 10:28:00 AM
From: Stormweaver	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 64865

HP is lost. They are trapped in the netherworld between NT and UNIX and they are losing their HP-UX customer base to SUNW. Regarding Merced, who cares if it actually makes it as INTC is doing fine without it. CPQ is a dark horse as they have all the technology and all the bases covered; good MSFT relations, good x86 configs/price, have DEC (DG-UX + hardware), have the $billion dollar DEC consulting group. IMHO they are dirt cheap @ 24bucks if new management can kickstart things. Their 21164 500/600MHZ chips blow away all current ultra-sparc and x86 offerings ... and give you the ability to run DG-UX, VMS, NT or Linux.