So after I made 2 claims, one of which I documented, you believe I made the 2nd one up?
Scott McNealy, National Press Club October 9, 1996:
"Next to Darth Vader in the boardroom, I saw a picture of a previous group of press people around some old typewriters. We would be far more productive if we could go back to that environment. Think about having a four-feature word processor only - that's all I've ever used - backspace, delete, cut and paste and print - and you know what - it works perfectly."
He's really talking about a text editor, not a word processor. I've read other quotes that were even more specific, but they were a long time ago before magazines put all their content online.
The irony (or hypocrisy) of McNealy saying that all you need is a typewriter or 4-function "word processor" and then buying and promoting an Office-like suite is not lost on me.
"We had 12.9 gigabytes of PowerPoint slides on our network. And I thought, 'What a huge waste of corporate productivity'. So we banned it. And we've had three unbelievable record-breaking fiscal quarters since."
"...give everybody plastic Mylar sheets and all the pens they need to scribble on them", and to use what he describes as "the Bill Joy font. You can see where he licked his thumb and erases. It's so much faster," and leaves you time to get on with the job.
I'm sure you're right that an inability to adapt was an important factor, but when the CE0 is busy giving talks and interviews about how he doesn't understand why people use word processors and how he handed out white boards and markers to employees to wean them off PowerPoint, he's clearly taken his eyes off the ball.
IBM had far more resources to promote OS/2 than MS did to promote Windows. I don't know why they didn't choose to promote it, but OS/2's failure in the market place was IBM's responsibility.
When IBM bought Rational, they kept some of the high-margin products, but the lowest-cost Rational product, Visual Test, was discontinued, not open sourced, and they wouldn't even allow you to buy a license for the current version.
So if Sun's products are free and compete with profitable offerings IBM already has, don't be surprised if they get buried.
"I think IBM still has so anger issues with Microsoft."
I don't think IBM ever had anger issues with anyone - it's not their style. They didn't write a lot of scathing articles about SCO, they just quietly went to court. For IBM, it's not personal, just business.
"It's not the code, it's the people, the brand name, the work in progress, the various other Java assets Sun may have acquired from 3rd parties over the years, the patent portfolio (required mainly to protect Java from Microsoft), and so forth."
I don't know. Given the recent "advances" in Java in recent years, perhaps IBM hopes to discontinue "the work in progress" to save Java from further harm.
I don't think that "best and brightest" would leave in a heartbeat in this economy. Besides, a lot of the best probably moved to Google a long time ago.
"...my guess is that IBM still has dreams of getting on the corporate desktop (which is the gateway to the home desktop) and Java, Solaris, Open Office/Star Office, plus all their contributions to Free software is part of the ticket to compete with Microsoft in the next decade"
That was Sun's dream as well and the primary reason why it's available at a discount. It was too busy "competing" with MS to focus on it's core market - high performance computers.
Fortunately for IBM, it's not in the "We'll beat Bill Gates" business, but rather in the "Let's make money business".
"Most microcontrollers of this sort take several clocks per instruction."
Isn't that the most common scenario on modern processors as well? The difference is that with an 8 bit microcontroller you can easily determine the number of clock cycles per instruction, on most of today's microprocessors you usually can't.
New executives are like the series they cancel, expected to increase profits before they get a chance to hit their stride and are rapidly fired, making room for the next failure to be.
My point is that management is usually interested in getting things done ASAP, usually ASAI (As Soon As Impossible). I've never worked anywhere where management would reject a shorter estimate just because it couldn't be tied down to a specific date.
Of course, an estimate like 2-9 weeks is so vague that it suggests that the coder might take a lot longer than 9 weeks to complete it.
Actually Windows 386 and Windows 3.1 were separate products. If your point is that there would be no version of Windows beyond Windows 286 if not for this guy I don't buy it.
Politically in the US, Socialism has been branded as Communism-light and Communism has been equated with "the guys that want to drop the atom bomb on us".
Unfortunately for Republicans, these terms don't resonate much with anyone under the age 40 who don't have experience living through the cold war. Instead, it's just another political term that they missed on their exams.
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So after I made 2 claims, one of which I documented, you believe I made the 2nd one up?
Scott McNealy, National Press Club October 9, 1996:
"Next to Darth Vader in the boardroom, I saw a picture of a previous group of press people around some old typewriters. We would be far more productive if we could go back to that environment. Think about having a four-feature word processor only - that's all I've ever used - backspace, delete, cut and paste and print - and you know what - it works perfectly."
He's really talking about a text editor, not a word processor. I've read other quotes that were even more specific, but they were a long time ago before magazines put all their content online.
The irony (or hypocrisy) of McNealy saying that all you need is a typewriter or 4-function "word processor" and then buying and promoting an Office-like suite is not lost on me.
This was years before Star Office. The fact that Sun bought an office package is what makes it so ironic.
McNealy in San Jose Mercury News, 3 August 1997:
"We had 12.9 gigabytes of PowerPoint slides on our network. And I thought, 'What a huge waste of corporate productivity'. So we banned it. And we've had three unbelievable record-breaking fiscal quarters since."
"...give everybody plastic Mylar sheets and all the pens they need to scribble on them", and to use what he describes as "the Bill Joy font. You can see where he licked his thumb and erases. It's so much faster," and leaves you time to get on with the job.
"I'm sorry, I don't recall that particular meme â" and I was working at Sun at the time."
If you've never heard of those statements, how do you know you were at Sun at the time they were said?
I'm sure you're right that an inability to adapt was an important factor, but when the CE0 is busy giving talks and interviews about how he doesn't understand why people use word processors and how he handed out white boards and markers to employees to wean them off PowerPoint, he's clearly taken his eyes off the ball.
IBM had far more resources to promote OS/2 than MS did to promote Windows. I don't know why they didn't choose to promote it, but OS/2's failure in the market place was IBM's responsibility.
"IBM is kicking a lot of money and code into the Linux kernel.."
I realize that the Linux kernel is famously monolithic, but shouldn't it be about done by now?
When IBM bought Rational, they kept some of the high-margin products, but the lowest-cost Rational product, Visual Test, was discontinued, not open sourced, and they wouldn't even allow you to buy a license for the current version.
So if Sun's products are free and compete with profitable offerings IBM already has, don't be surprised if they get buried.
"I think IBM still has so anger issues with Microsoft."
I don't think IBM ever had anger issues with anyone - it's not their style. They didn't write a lot of scathing articles about SCO, they just quietly went to court. For IBM, it's not personal, just business.
"It's not the code, it's the people, the brand name, the work in progress, the various other Java assets Sun may have acquired from 3rd parties over the years, the patent portfolio (required mainly to protect Java from Microsoft), and so forth."
I don't know. Given the recent "advances" in Java in recent years, perhaps IBM hopes to discontinue "the work in progress" to save Java from further harm.
I don't think that "best and brightest" would leave in a heartbeat in this economy. Besides, a lot of the best probably moved to Google a long time ago.
OK, but how much red ink does each employee generate?
"...my guess is that IBM still has dreams of getting on the corporate desktop (which is the gateway to the home desktop) and Java, Solaris, Open Office/Star Office, plus all their contributions to Free software is part of the ticket to compete with Microsoft in the next decade"
That was Sun's dream as well and the primary reason why it's available at a discount. It was too busy "competing" with MS to focus on it's core market - high performance computers.
Fortunately for IBM, it's not in the "We'll beat Bill Gates" business, but rather in the "Let's make money business".
"Most microcontrollers of this sort take several clocks per instruction."
Isn't that the most common scenario on modern processors as well? The difference is that with an 8 bit microcontroller you can easily determine the number of clock cycles per instruction, on most of today's microprocessors you usually can't.
"Computer science is a mathematical discipline that has little to do with computers at all."
Sure, otherwise they'd call it Computer ... oh wait.
New executives are like the series they cancel, expected to increase profits before they get a chance to hit their stride and are rapidly fired, making room for the next failure to be.
Their content seems to be primarily silly ghost hunters, wrestling, cheap horror movies and the occasional soon-to be-canceled science fiction series.
It works about 50% of the time if you know exactly when and where the mosquitoes are at the time of the attack.
My point is that management is usually interested in getting things done ASAP, usually ASAI (As Soon As Impossible). I've never worked anywhere where management would reject a shorter estimate just because it couldn't be tied down to a specific date.
Of course, an estimate like 2-9 weeks is so vague that it suggests that the coder might take a lot longer than 9 weeks to complete it.
Actually Windows 386 and Windows 3.1 were separate products. If your point is that there would be no version of Windows beyond Windows 286 if not for this guy I don't buy it.
No single coder has saved a company "millions of dollars".
"They would prefer that a project *definately* take 16 weeks instead of taking 2 to 9 weeks."
I've obviously been working for the wrong companies for the last 25 years. They would prefer that a project definitely takes 1 week.
Slashdot is a free service in the sense that we don't get paid to provide the content.
I don't believe in ranking generations, but just one point of fact: the generation that created the credit card were born in the 20's and 30's.
Politically in the US, Socialism has been branded as Communism-light and Communism has been equated with "the guys that want to drop the atom bomb on us".
Unfortunately for Republicans, these terms don't resonate much with anyone under the age 40 who don't have experience living through the cold war. Instead, it's just another political term that they missed on their exams.