_______ is dead?

Posted Oct 3, 2003 10:34 UTC (Fri) by djabsolut (guest, #12799)
In reply to: _______ is dead? by gdt
Parent article: After Sun goes out (NewsForge)

The comparison with Commodore (C=) is on the right track. C= had a good product for a while (the Am*ga), but miserably failed to innovate/develop it or place it in a coherent direction (anybody remember the CD32 debacle?). It's as if they deliberately consigned themselves into a niche and never bothered to strike out from it; C= became complacent, thinking that the niche will last forever.

Sun is doing the same - it's placing itself (whether deliberately or inadvertently) into the high-end server niche (and it is becoming a niche due the presure of Linux & Windoze utilizing the ever increasing horsepower of run-of-the-mill Intel processors). They keep on touting that Solaris on x86 is the best. What planet are they on? Why on earth would anybody want to pay them when Linux, or even the *BSD distros, are just as good or better?

The solution for Sun is a simple and an obvious one, yet they're living like they want to turn the clock back. They can keep on peddling their high-end servers, but that by itself is not enough. They will also have to focus their energies into making & selling Linux boxes and support contracts (a la Red Hat). It's called evolution: mutate or die.