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Sun's Bold New Ad Campaign
Celeritas writes "Sun is making some noise over their latest x64server entries by doing a fly by over Dell's HQ yesterday. A few pictures were snapped to capture the event. Sun has continued the offensive by running some interesting ads as well as designing some that were rejected due to the controversial content or as Sun calls them 'bold ad concepts'"
... for Dell Computer Corporation, anyway.
McNealy is sure paying a lot of money to keep Michael's name in the big lights.
Dell followed up by sending a B-52 on a bomb run over Sun headquarters. Sun was not available for comment.
From the text of that ad, you'd think they had -just- now started selling AMD64 servers. I have several Sun AMD64 servers sitting in my server room, and have for quite a while now. Granted, they're just reference boxes -- but they do say Sun on them.
Scott McNealy is officially insane.
Didn't Quark run a bunch of ads that maligned Adobe's product and basically made Quark come off like a bunch of insecure jerks?
When you have to insult your competition, you insinuate that you are losing to them. Sun looks like they are losing to Dell, which they may very well be, I don't know. But this ad campaign cements that idea.
Jesus saved me from my past. He can save you as well.
I know jack about marketing, but this stinks of desperation.
Mongrel News all the news that fits and froths
Perhaps Sun could learn to promote their products on their own merits, rather than insulting a competitor.
But don't most server admins know the benefits, and won't they have already done the research on what they want to buy?
You think server admins usually get to choose what to buy?
I don't think so.
It looks to me the ads are probably targeted at getting the mindshare of PHB types.
http://quarkvsindesign.com/news/archives/2005/03/q uarks-postcards-from-the-edge/
Jesus saved me from my past. He can save you as well.
Err, have you NOT been reading slashdot for the last couple of days? This is what these ads are all about. AMD Opteron boxes for cheaper than Dell sells em and faster as well. New designs by Andy Bechtolsteim (sic), who is widely regarded as one of the best server designers...
Oh, and I think these boxes are supported by Sun for Windows, Linux (Redhat and Suse) and of course Solaris.
And of course they push Solaris. Some people actually think that it MIGHT be a better Unix that Linux (Moderators, you didnt read that...)
"The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding."
20 comments, and the images are still available. I guess the new servers are ass-kickin machines.
What price sheet have you been looking at and from what year?
... all of Sun's x86 servers are certified to run Linux. They wouldn't bother if they thought that Linux sucks.
A Sun Fire X2100 starts at $745 LIST. Go through a reseller and you're guaranteed to get discounts on top of that. These prices that UNHEARD OF for Sun. They have completely slashed their prices down to levels that I never thought I would ever see. I've been working with Sun hardware for 10 years and I've been cursing their outrageous prices for nine of those years as I saw Intel after Intel replace numerous Sun workstations and servers. I've had no excuse to curse Sun's prices in the past 12 months.
If we were talking about the Sun of the past, you'd be absolutely correct. They charged outrageous prices because your were buying the Sun name and the Sun R&D. That arrogance died very recently. Look at any of their x86 offerings, like the Ultra 20, which is also available for less than $900 list.
Half the quality? They offer a 3 year warranty on all hardware. Every other vendor I've had to deal with wants a service contract ($$$) for that amount of coverage. I doubt they'd give that warranty if they thought the quality was such that the systems wouldn't last at least that long. Otherwise, they'd expect to lose a shitload of money to spare parts and customer service calls, which would not be a wise move at all.
Oh, by the way
It's blatantly obvious that you don't have a clue what you're talking about or you just want to bash on Sun for the sake of bashing on Sun.
The Overrated mod is for reversing inappropriate, positive mods, not for voicing disagreement with a post.
That porno-mag style interview with the SunFire server near the fire place is very interesting - more proof that porn and technology go hand in hand. What kind of website would reliable, beefy server hardware be more suited to than a pr0n operation?
Without a proper flamewar, Anonymous was undecided on what shell to run.
Dell, the name Osama Bin Laden swears by.
When you buy Dell, it makes the baby Jesus cry. You don't want to make the baby Jesus cry, do you?
Hey Dell, we just fucked your girlfriend.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
You act like this is new for Sun. Let's not forget that this is the same Sun that sent a boatload of exterminator trucks to the Windows 2000 launch just to remind everyone that Win2K had 65,000 bugs in it. Or the constant bickering between Sun and IBM.
Not to mention McNealy's comments about HP: "They make great printers!"
Nope, nothing new under the Sun.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Why? I think that's a really brilliant move! That means that Sun systems are the only systems out there that are certified to run Linux, Windows, and Solaris x86. That's has the potential to be an awesome marketing tool that no other server manufacturer can make.
As I mentioned in a different Slashdot story, one of the local Windows admins got a loaner Sun system with Windows installed on it and he was very impressed with its speed and stability. That can open a whole, new market base for Sun. And even if those servers don't run Solaris now, who's to say that they won't in the future as current systems are put into end-of-life or replaced and therefore can serve other functions? Now that we've moved the data to a bigger server, what should we do with this one? Let's put that Solaris on it and see what we can do with it. Hey, it's a very distinct possibility.
Personally, I think that it's about time that McNealy swallowed a bit of that arrogant pride of his. It's been a long time coming. As a Sun admin for over 10 years I'm very excited about this new direction that Sun has been taking. Let's hope it's not too little, too late.
The Overrated mod is for reversing inappropriate, positive mods, not for voicing disagreement with a post.
the ad doesn't suck... we are all sitting around slashdot talking about servers almost none of us were previously interested in but here we are talking about them, and looking up system specs on them. This ad will work quite well to stir up a buzz about Sun's servers.
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
Nope. I live right next to Dell's Round Rock campus and this (http://www.justanotherpodcast.net/Files/Sunx86Fly oversmall.jpg) is exactly what was flying over around 2 PM.
Sun would probably say AMD64, since that is what they sell, except that they also want you to run Solaris on your non-Sun boxes, which may have 64 bit Intel x86 processors. They may also want to avoid burning bridges, in case Intel processors become more compelling in the future.
Whoever corrects a mocker invites insult;
whoever rebukes a wicked man incurs abuse.
--Proverbs 9:7
Sun has a winning hand here. It is that simple.
... you can see why Sun has no problem mentioning Dell in the ads.
The AMD64 platform is a better platform than Intel's at the moment, in every way. And on top of that, Sun has a hell of a lot more experience in building bulletproof hardware. When you factor in Solaris & a lower price tag
You can spin this whatever way you want, but I'm looking forward to seeing Sun trash the company that brought us the "Dell dude". Dell can go back to selling their overpriced PCs at Christmas, and the people who actually run the important servers in the world, doing billion dollar transactions, have a clear path to keep the Windows/Dell bozos out of the server room in the basement of the bank.
Michael Dell: I'm trying to make computers for kids to take to college.
Scott McNealy: Your mom goes to college.
my theory is: ... Good products don't need much if any advertising.
That was the attitude over at Digital. Their head honcho believed that they would dominate by just having the best products, and that marketing was therefore a waste of time. Instead they got bought out by some commodity PC outfit called Compaq.