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> Sun is the loose cannon of the computer industry. Unable to see past their raging fear and loathing of Microsoft, they adopt strategies based on anger rather
by RyanMcGreal 17y ago
> Sun is the loose cannon of the computer industry. Unable to see past their raging fear and loathing of Microsoft, they adopt strategies based on anger rather than self-interest. Sun's two strategies are (a) make software a commodity by promoting and developing free software (Star Office, Linux, Apache, Gnome, etc), and (b) make hardware a commodity by promoting Java, with its bytecode architecture and WORA. OK, Sun, pop quiz: when the music stops, where are you going to sit down?
Eight years later, we finally know the answer to Joel's question.
- ZeroGravitas 17y agoThey weren't making all software a commodity though, just the ones that their rival had market dominance of, or where they had no chance of gaining dominance themselves. It's easy to point and laugh at Sun, but that's the same approach to open source (and standards) that Apple used to get out of the shadow of Microsoft and they seem to be doing okay. (The same probably applies to Sun breaking lock-in to Intel based hardware architectures. Again this applies to Apple as they had to switch from PPC to Intel, but their cross-architecture experience gave them the leg up on ARM based phone and tablet markets.)
- ableal 17y agoAnd I've seen it argued [1] that the newer Sun multi-core Sparc CPUs actually made sense for database and webserver loads. We may still get to watch Oracle making hay on that. [1] for example here: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Murphy/?p=1701 http://blogs.zdnet.com/Murphy/?p=1701 (There may be better pieces out there, my interest in this is limited.)