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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'"

20 of 426 comments (clear)

  1. Looks like some great ads by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... for Dell Computer Corporation, anyway.

    McNealy is sure paying a lot of money to keep Michael's name in the big lights.

    1. Re:Looks like some great ads by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      How are these ads for Dell? Look at the
      specs. The Suns cost 50% less,
      and use 66% less power. If anyone did
      any investigation (which is often the case when
      buying servers), then Sun gets the benefit of
      this ad. If, however, buying servers is merely
      about name recognition and "branding" then,
      yes, Dell benefits. But honestly, home
      users do not buy 1U devices. People who
      buy 1U devices look at price, performance,
      and power consumption. So, these adds help
      Sun.

    2. Re:Looks like some great ads by dcocos · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The point that you are missing is that ( and this is a rule of marketing) is that the market leader never mentions the any competitors, but the rest of the companies ALWAYS mention the number one company so that potential consumers will equate their product with the market leader. Think about how often Pepsi mentions Coke in their ads but Coke NEVER mentions Pepsi. This is literally taken my from Marketing 101 class that I took oh so many years ago.

    3. Re:Looks like some great ads by Anonymous+Luddite · · Score: 5, Funny

      >> If anyone did any investigation (which is often the case when buying servers)

      not where I work....

  2. News at 11 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Dell followed up by sending a B-52 on a bomb run over Sun headquarters. Sun was not available for comment.

  3. I am a bit disappointed by HairyCanary · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:I am a bit disappointed by saleenS281 · · Score: 5, Informative

      no, they "just now" started selling low cost AMD64 servers. They NEVER sold an entry level complete box for 795$ before the latest release. That's the type of market dell held before. IIRC, the cheapest opteron box previously was almost 2k$. Not only that, these new boxes are "all sun" instead of just a rebadged whitebox from a different manufacturer.

    2. Re:I am a bit disappointed by Seumas · · Score: 5, Funny

      Why, just last week, I ran through the neighborhood screaming "I HAVE CABLE TELEVISION!". Nobody seemed to care, though.

  4. Reminds me of QuarkExpress by ReformedExCon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.
  5. Re:Unfortunately... by bajan_on_ice · · Score: 5, Informative

    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."
  6. wow by Tsiangkun · · Score: 5, Funny

    20 comments, and the images are still available. I guess the new servers are ass-kickin machines.

  7. Wow. The clue meter is reading zero. by WidescreenFreak · · Score: 5, Informative

    What price sheet have you been looking at and from what year?

    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 ... all of Sun's x86 servers are certified to run Linux. They wouldn't bother if they thought that Linux sucks.

    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.
  8. Sun knows exactly who they're marketing to by mtrisk · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.
  9. I have a few ideas... by Lord+Kano · · Score: 5, Funny

    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
  10. Re:Idiots by nametaken · · Score: 5, Insightful

    But then it wouldn't have made digg.com, /., and thousands of other major sites.

    Whats the point of a mature ad campaign that nobody notices. An obnoxious one is almost always better. Just ask AFLAK.

    So that's my take. Can you hear me now?

  11. Re:From an advertising copywriter... by Lehk228 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.
  12. Re:photoshopped by FLaSh+SWT · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  13. x64 by Dink+Paisy · · Score: 5, Informative
    x64 is Microsoft's vendor neutral name for x86-64/AMD64/IA32e/EM64T. Linux calls it x86-64, but since AMD officially deprecated that name, Sun goes by the Microsoft convention and says x64.

    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
  14. With apologies to Nappy D by bighoov · · Score: 5, Funny

    Michael Dell: I'm trying to make computers for kids to take to college.

    Scott McNealy: Your mom goes to college.

  15. Re:Idiots by minion · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Perhaps Sun could learn to promote their products on their own merits, rather than insulting a competitor.
     
    I think those ads speak very well of Sun's merits.
    A) Sun's servers use less power
    B)Sun's servers put off less heat
    C)Sun's servers are faster than Dell's.
     
    Really, one thing to consider here: Sun makes an OS, makes CPUs, makes chipsets.. And we're not talking just the fabrication. They have engineers designing this stuff... What has Dell ever developed? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. They've developed nothing, except for a business model that takes other people's desgins and hard work, and mass produces them so each unit can make a $5 profit, and hope that they'll sell a million units.
     
    They are the leech of the industry, and with our patronage, future R&D is in grave trouble, because they give nothing back to the community.

    --

    -- If we don't stand up for our rights, now, there will be no right to stand up for them later.