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Re: [PLUG] Re: Well, its official -- Sun is serious about being anti Linux and Open Source
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On Sun, Apr 04, 2004 at 07:23:48PM -0400, Mike Leone wrote:
> Jeff Abrahamson (jeff@purple.com) had this to say on 04/04/04 at 17:00:
> > On Sun, Apr 04, 2004 at 03:26:24PM -0400, Mike Leone wrote:
> > > Wasn't Apple "seriously dying" a few years ago, and MS put some
> > > money into them, too? And Apple is doing pretty well these days.
> > >
> > > (yes, I know Apple is retail-oriented and Sun is not)
> >
> > And Apple is MS's last best bet to keep antitrust regulators off
> > their back, as Apple is viewed as their only real competitor in the
> > commercial OS market.
> >
> > Many of us believed (and still do) that MS helped Apple because they
> > *need* Apple to have a minority OS share if MS is to have any hope
> > at all in the legal arena.
>
> The point being, that Apple stayed in business and thrived, after
> having money invested in them by MS. And they, too, signed some
> technology agreements with MS (at one time). This as a counter to the
> claim that Sun would be out of business Real Soon Now.
By that logic, any animal with black stripes must be a bumble bee.
Apple is thriving on its own merits. It went back to its core values,
nurtured its fanatical customer base, and developed great products.
Their OS was dying a long, slow death, and they managed to complete a
transition to a new CPU architecture, while gradually migrating to a new OS.
In the process, they also built some cool hardware that enticed many
non-customers to become customers: the iMac and PowerBooks come to mind.
They also delivered software to define and simplify 'the digital
lifestyle', as well as pretty much writing the book on digital music.
Sun, by comparison, has been languishing longer and deeper than Apple
did after Jobs left. They're dealing with a stodgier customer base that
isn't fanatically loyal, and they're not innovating anymore.
The things that Apple and Sun have in common, aside from their
investments from Microsoft, are that their continued existance helps
bolster Microsoft's claim that it does in fact have competition. But
that is precisely where the analogy ends.
Z.
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