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Sun Says Hardware Will Be Free

Posted by michael on from the sun-hardware-overpriced-anyway dept.

ron_ivi writes "Reuters reports that Sun's President and COO thinks hardware will be free and that people will pay for software subscriptions instead. Reuters quotes Schwartz: 'In our world, you will subscribe to the software and the hardware is free.' 'Directionally, our expectation is that in fiscal 2005 you're going to see a rapid departure from selling hardware, software and services apart.' 'Bill Gates and I agree that within four to five years hardware will be free.' We've recently read here on /. how Gates thinks hardware will be free."

3 of 895 comments (clear)

  1. ostrich by EvilAlien · · Score: 0, Troll
    On the one hand one has MS which has the economy of scale and flouts standards as a competative tactic. and ont he other one has Apple which knows how to create products and create standards that people really want. In the middle SUN has none of these attributes except in a very niche area of sun fanatics.
    I think perhaps you are confused. Which products and standards that "people really want" are you referring to? Surely not those that comprise a mere estimated 5% of the desktop market? That doesn't translate to too many people really wanting those products... oh wait, I forgot... WAHH MICROSOFT CHEATED!

    Apple owned the desktop market in the 80s and got beat down by the new guy named Billy Gates. IMHO, now they are the niche player catering to fanatics.

    Meanwhile Sun has a pretty good grasp on the large scale server market that Microsoft thinks it has products for (but doesn't) and Apple can barely comprehend. Bare in mind that I don't like Sun, Solaris, or much of what they do... but reality is reality, and no amount of head_in_sand and dreams of Apple computers in every home will change that.

    --
    perl -e 'print $i=pack(c5, (41*2), sqrt(7056), (unpack(c,H)-2), oct(115), 10)'
  2. Re:Free Market by Grishnakh · · Score: 0, Troll

    Yup. The problem here is that Americans, for some reason, think they have a "right" to live in luxury, rather than within their means. There's plenty of small, economical cars that cost less than $15k new, and you can buy used cars for $5-10k or less all day. Buy yourself a set of tools and learn a little about auto mechanics and you can buy an older used car and keep it running for next to nothing (I'd recommend starting with a reliable car in the first place though, like a Honda).

  3. Re:Free What? by medscaper · · Score: 0, Troll
    Most American's would do well to take Family Finance 101 again.

    Apparently, at least one American would do well to take 3rd-grade grammar again...

    --
    Any sufficiently well-organized Government is indistinguishable from bullshit.