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Success could be possible only if they also bought NeXT and replaces Scott McNealy with Steve Jobs.

by didip 5y ago

panick21_ 5y ago
Jobs was never interested in Server and that where Sun could have made the most bank looking back at it from now. Sun would have been a natural as cloud company and a x86 server and NAS vendor.
- smackeyacky 5y ago
  They tried and failed, the dotcom bust did them in, there was so much sparc hardware on the 2nd hand market it killed their server business for a while. Their x86 servers were never as good as HP/Compaq and a lot of their ancillary hardware like tape backup was rebadged from HP. When servers got going again, price became absolutely key and Linux had become so good it made solaris seem like yesterdays news. I do like this alternative timeline, but if Apple went Solaris it wouldn't have surprised me if Microsoft did a linux distro in the early 2000s which would have really made for a strange future.
  - panick21_ 5y ago
    > Their x86 servers were never as good as HP/Compaq Some of their x86 AMD server were pretty good. > When servers got going again, price became absolutely key and Linux had become so good it made solaris seem like yesterdays news. Technically this is very questionable. I would argue Solaris was way ahead at that point. > I do like this alternative timeline, but if Apple went Solaris it wouldn't have surprised me if Microsoft did a linux distro in the early 2000s which would have really made for a strange future. Not sure I understand that logic.
    - smackeyacky 5y ago
      Solaris was technically better, no question, but linux got "good enough" and for most customers that put expensuve Sun licences out of the question. Back then, Microsoft saw sun as a major competitor, I don't think its out of the question they would have tried selling Unix again. They did in the 1980s.
      - panick21_ 5y ago
        In my mind Solaris was Open in mid-2000s but now looking it up it was only in the later 2000s when it opened up. Yeah, it would have need to be Open. > Back then, Microsoft saw sun as a major competitor, I don't think its out of the question they would have tried selling Unix again. They did in the 1980s. I don't really see it. The competition was mostly in the server space. If Microsoft wanted to adopt UNIX to compete why would Sun buying Apple have change anything?
  - justsomehnguy 5y ago
    > tape backup was rebadged from HP Did HP actually made any tape hardware themselves? At least with LTO my impression was what everyone just OEMed from Quanta.
    - smackeyacky 5y ago
      I'm not entirely sure. I used to use a sun tape autoloader that had a HP badge on the back.
  - pjmlp 5y ago
    Yep, "the network is the computer", hello microservices.

Success could be possible only if they also bought NeXT and replaces Scott McNealy with Steve Jobs.

by didip 5y ago

Success could be possible only if they also bought NeXT and replaces Scott McNealy with Steve Jobs.

Jobs was never interested in Server and that where Sun could have made the most bank looking back at it from now. Sun would have been a natural as cloud company and a x86 server and NAS vendor.

smackeyacky 5y ago
They tried and failed, the dotcom bust did them in, there was so much sparc hardware on the 2nd hand market it killed their server business for a while. Their x86 servers were never as good as HP/Compaq and a lot of their ancillary hardware like tape backup was rebadged from HP. When servers got going again, price became absolutely key and Linux had become so good it made solaris seem like yesterdays news. I do like this alternative timeline, but if Apple went Solaris it wouldn't have surprised me if Microsoft did a linux distro in the early 2000s which would have really made for a strange future.
- panick21_ 5y ago
  > Their x86 servers were never as good as HP/Compaq Some of their x86 AMD server were pretty good. > When servers got going again, price became absolutely key and Linux had become so good it made solaris seem like yesterdays news. Technically this is very questionable. I would argue Solaris was way ahead at that point. > I do like this alternative timeline, but if Apple went Solaris it wouldn't have surprised me if Microsoft did a linux distro in the early 2000s which would have really made for a strange future. Not sure I understand that logic.
  - smackeyacky 5y ago
    Solaris was technically better, no question, but linux got "good enough" and for most customers that put expensuve Sun licences out of the question. Back then, Microsoft saw sun as a major competitor, I don't think its out of the question they would have tried selling Unix again. They did in the 1980s.
    - panick21_ 5y ago
      In my mind Solaris was Open in mid-2000s but now looking it up it was only in the later 2000s when it opened up. Yeah, it would have need to be Open. > Back then, Microsoft saw sun as a major competitor, I don't think its out of the question they would have tried selling Unix again. They did in the 1980s. I don't really see it. The competition was mostly in the server space. If Microsoft wanted to adopt UNIX to compete why would Sun buying Apple have change anything?
- justsomehnguy 5y ago
  > tape backup was rebadged from HP Did HP actually made any tape hardware themselves? At least with LTO my impression was what everyone just OEMed from Quanta.
  - smackeyacky 5y ago
    I'm not entirely sure. I used to use a sun tape autoloader that had a HP badge on the back.
- pjmlp 5y ago
  Yep, "the network is the computer", hello microservices.