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The Comedy of Scott McNealy

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the stuff-to-laugh-at dept.

Rob writes "News that Sun co-founder and long-serving CEO, Scott McNealy is stepping aside, heaps a load of pressure on incoming CEO Jonathan Schwartz - he will have to get working on his anti-Microsoft gags quick-sharp. Aside from Sun's strategy and his execution of it, McNealy's tenure as CEO will be remembered for his constant Microsoft sniping. CBR remembers some of his favourite quotes."

4 of 125 comments (clear)

  1. The Quotes by neonprimetime · · Score: 5, Funny

    A selection of the best Scott McNealy quotes: "When Steve Ballmer calls me wacko, I consider that a compliment." "The only thing that I'd rather own than Windows is English, because then I could charge you two hundred and forty-nine dollars for the right to speak it." "Shut down some of the bullshit the government is spending money on and use it to buy all the Microsoft stock. Then put all their intellectual property in the public domain. Free Windows for everyone! Then we could just bronze Gates, turn him into a statue and stick him in front of the Commerce Department." "Microsoft is now talking about the digital nervous system... I guess I would be nervous if my system was built on their technology too." "It's the good guys versus the bad guys, and the good guys are winning." "W2K (Windows 2000) will be a bigger disaster than Y2K." "A giant hairball." [About Windows NT] "The Evil Empire." [guess who] "The beast from Redmond." [yup] "Anyone heard any good monopolist jokes lately?" "Ballmer and Butthead" [Ballmer and you-know-who] ".Not, .Not Yet and .Nut" [Microsoft's .Net strategy]

    1. Re:The Quotes by dlawson · · Score: 5, Funny

      Best quote from Scott.

            I was a sales support engineer for a pretty big distributor. When they decided to get into Unix, we got a relationship with Sun to sell the Sun Connect line (mostly into the Fed.)

            Scott's best comment came out when MS got ready to ship Win 3.11 -
                  "Putting Windows on top of DOS is like putting whipped cream on a road apple." ... (road apples are horse poop, in case you didn't get the connection.)

      For years my .sig was "Scott McNealy was right."

      davel

      --
      dot-sig.
  2. It worked against him, not for him. by hhr · · Score: 5, Insightful

    While the constant MS bashing was interesting, I think it worked against Sun, and not for it. It sent the message "Buy Sun if you hate Microsoft." Like it or not, hating MSFT isn't a great way to run a billion dollar business.

    Do I get more rich and more happy just because I hate MSFT? No. I get more rich and more happy by making better choices that ingore (or include) MSFT as warrented.

    Red Hat gets this. McNealy should have sent the message "Buy Sun to solve problems X and Y and Z. That will put more money in your pocket and make you happier." Unless the Schwartz gets this, Sun will continue it's relative decline.

  3. Speaking of bad priorities... by Valdrax · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why exactly are we fondly remembering this guy? Everyone seems to be forgetting that one of his more notorious quotes was, "Privacy is dead; get over it." Rather than try to fix privacy problems, McNealy argued that we should just accept it, move on, and embrace the new privacy-less future (especially if it involves systems powered by Sun hardware).

    Don't forget that in the wake of September 11th, both him and Ellison were ponying up to offer their company's services in helping to create a national ID. He even calls lining up at airport security an "efficiency tax" that biometric IDs would somehow maaaaagically fix.

    I say good riddance.

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