I believe that Microsoft made a HUGE mistake for not targeting the whole family, much like Nintendo. When they where pushing the Xbox, they kept saying that it was for the teenage boys and up. So a ton of people that had a teenager AND other small children in the house would buy Nintendo as their "new" system, so the whole family could use it.
I own a PS2 and have looked at both the Xbox and GC, but find the games are not that much better on either platform. I believe that this is why a BUNCH of people have not purchased an Xbox either. They currently own a PS2 and are happy with it AND they don't want to have two game systems in the house.
Maby I look at it a little different than most, but the way I see it is this.
1. The world is in a horrible economic state now. People's spending is WAY down. They will still purchase new games, but the thought of buying a new or second game system will not enter their mind. This assumes that they own a PS2, GC or Xbox now.
2. A lot of PS1 families will buy PS2 systems. 3. Families with smaller children will buy GC. 4. I believe Sony has over 90 million PS2's sold.
5. I believe that Microsoft has 5 million Xboxes sold.
6. I believe that Nintendo has 5 million GC sold.
It appears to me that the war is kinda over. If the economy was good or great then this may be a different story, but can Microsoft really expect 70+ million Xboxes to be sold this Christmass?? In a bad economy? If they don't then what number would be a success? 50 Million? 25 Million? 10 Million? If they sold 25 million then Sony still has the lions share of the market.
I am considered old by some people and I can only think of ONE time it was worse in recent American history, that was in the early 1930's. (No I wasn't alive then).
The early and mid 70's kinda sucked, but it wasn't as bad as now.
The very late 80's and early 90's kinda sucked to but not near as bad as now.
You point to unemployment as a barameter, but remember that it only last around 6 months. Also you have to look at the quality of jobs people had to what they have now. If someone was an executive sales rep and now greets people at Walmart, that is a GIANT setback to the economy.
Do you have ANY data to back this up? Why is it that they are considering lowering intrest rates again? It isn't because the economy is flat or growing.
Being conservative is one thing. I consider myself conservative, and I will admit that the economy was slowing down before GWB got in office, but to say that it is picking up makes you sound like an idiot. I guess you could point out that not as many companies are folding this year as last...:-)
Just because someone is concervative doens't mean they have to take everything Rush says as gospil. Please remember that he still believes that Microsoft didn't do anything wrong.:-)
Well I have worked with a large number of H-1B people and lets be honest, we are talking about Indians. All but a handfull have had the SAME amount of training and skills that local workers have. Yes it is a pain to get them, BUT once you have them for a year or two they are your slave. Why you ask? Because if they switch companies then the time they spent here doesn't count for their american citz.
To the point that you said they are NOT cheaper. This is not true. I don't believe that you are factoring in all the benifits that an employee gets.
Lastly, I believe that there should be a tax on any software development not done in the U.S.A. (Can't speak for other countries). My point is this. If someone builds a car outside the U.S. and ships it here, there is a heafty tax on it. However someone can imploy near slave labor in India and not have to pay a dime extra in taxes. My big gripe is that most people in the U.S. pay over 60% of their income in taxes (all taxes), Indian developers in India don't "contribute" the U.S. taxbase at all.
I agree that Novell has done a good job at generating revenue from sources other than NetWare; but a lions share of their revenue still comes from NetWare. Specifically the people who buy NetWare are the same ones who buy their other products. I can't confirm this but I would bet that way less than 20% of the eDirectory users don't use NetWare as their primary file and print server. Those same 80+% users would probably not be using Edirectory or Zenworks if they didn't own NetWare.
Zenworks is good, and better now that it doesn't require the NetWare client, but it is expensive and comes up short against products like WinInstall.
Yes Edirectory runs on a lot of platforms. Do you know of any large Windows only shop or Linux and Windows shop that runs Edirectory? As far as the AIX and OS/390 version I believe that they don't actually load ANY directory service on those platforms, but it is actually a gateway product.
Novell has been saying for YEARS that they will make eDirectory so it doesn't require NetWare, but have you seen what their support is like for this environment? Check out Network World for a report they did on running Edirectory on multiple platforms (Linux, Solaris, Windows and NetWare). They got it to work, but the support sucked.
I have run NDS on Unix and NetWare and found keeping the DS versions synced almost impossible, and you don't want different DSes out there! Try and get support when NetWare requires a new DS.NLM and your *nix doesn't have one yet. It sucks.
Lastly, I want to state again that I am a fan of Novell! I hope they do great, but the competition is extreemly tough now. Understand that Oracle supports about every platform under the sun, and if they don't feel that they should port any 9i features to your NOS, that says something.
The solution for Novell is to become another Linux distro. They could then focus on NT and *nix systems, and all the other NetWare fans out there will continue to buy their products anyway.
I don't want to repeat every Item you put on the list, so I will do my best to summerize.
Point 1. You say that Novell is easier to use than Windows NT for most stuff. You point out NWAdmin and Console One.
I agree to a point, but take an average user that knows Windows and have them try and admin a Novell Network. I love nwadmin, and think console one is ok, but it is way different than most people know. Also, you forgot about all the console commands that the user/admin will have to know. NetWare still requires you to load inetcfg and filtcfg for a lot for admin stuff. Almost any monkey could setup a NT server. (Excluding Email)
Point 2. You named one large company that uses Novell and say that their tree (Directory) is the largest in the world.
Great point. Name 10 others! For every one you name there will be 20+ others who are using Windows and or some form of Unix. Also it helps when people on your board of directors also are on Novell's board... My point is that almost nobody is commiting to Novell for the future of their business.
Point 3. It would be bad for Novell to brand a Linux distro, because they couldn't charge for it.
This isn't correct. They could and they know it. Some people within Novell agree with me on this issue and have taken this idea up to "upper management". It has fallen on deaf ears.
Now to add some more points why they should get off NetWare and convert to a Linux Distro.
1. No cost in kernel development. 2. No cost in converting Apache to Novell 3. JVM development would not be needed 4. No money to IBM to port Websphere 5. No more FTP development. 6. They could focus on improving Linux for printing 7. They could offer support and service better than RedHat does.
Even Oracle would now run on "Novell" again. They could market Novell in areas that they NEVER were able to before. I know a lot of shops that would NEVER consider NetWare on their mission critical database servers. They tend to live and die Unix. Well now they could have it, and the LAN administrators could admin it with NDS.
Novell would then have a NOS that most people would consider for something other than file and print. Granted their printing is second to none.
Would these changes make Novell what it was 10 years ago? No! Would it keep them from a slow death? Yes.
Let me ask you one question. If Novell did this, and produced a quality product and service, whould you switch off of them?
Wow.. I don't want to repeat everything yet again, so I will answer your responses in order.
1. A LOT of trade barriors have been broken down, but it would be foolish to trade with 3rd world countries who use slave labor. Cancel 3rd world debt? The U.S.A. has canceled a lot, but WE loaned the money to these countries. We did NOT give it to them.
2. Yes the U.S.A. only helps it's friends in regard to military. Do you suggest otherwise? A lot of people dies in Vietnam.
3. Not sure what your point is. Does it take money to get elected to office. Yes. Does it help to have a common name? Yes. But there are a BUNCH of senators that came from meager beginnings. Another point would be Jimmy Carter (not that I was a fan), came from a poor family. Even Bill Clinton would have been considered "lower class" in some countries.
6. Look at where Gates started and where he is now. There are numerous other examples I could use. I don't think you disagreed with my point though...
8. Most people flee here for an opportunity to make something of their life, and it is a better country. Mexico doesn't seem to guard it's boarders from the U.S.A does it?
1. All the money we give out every year to keep most 3rd world countries from colapsing?
2. The constant military help we give countries who need it?
3. A government run by the people for the people? Granted it could be better.
4. Having our women on equal ground with our men in every aspect of our lives?
5. Having most of our diverse religous and ethnic backgrounds get along together?
6. Having a country where a "common" class person can become the richest person in the world? Granted I don't like Bill Gates.
7. A country where EVERY child has the ability to get an education?
8. A country that thoughsands of people are fleeing to every year?
9. A country that produces enough food to not only feed themselves but a large part of the world?
10. A country where people could protest against the government and ANY political official and NOT get shot or have family members killed?
Or could it possibly be Bill Clinton? Ok, we are sorry for that one!
Nice to be able to type something like that and not have to worry about the government killing me.
I am not saying that the U.S.A. doesn't have it's problems, God knows we do, but to say the the rest of the world hates us is wrong. It would probably be better to say that a large part of the world envies the U.S.A. Some extreemist will try and turn that envy into hate. Understand though, that those people that try to turn those differences into hate, are generally just using people to make themselves more powerfull and rich. They may or may not believe in what they are preaching.
The reason Microsoft NEEDED Java was because Netscape owned a huge chunck of the browser market and Netscape shipped with a JVM. If Microsoft didn't get a JVM with their browser then nobody at the time would have used it. They then signed a very dumb contract with Sun. They thought they could get out of it, but they were wrong.
A lot of people responded to you already, but I will try and answer your quesiton.
You wonder why anyone needs Java on the client when 98% of the world runs windows. I would answer that with another question. What percentage run Windows 95? 98? 98SE? ME? NT 3.5? NT 3.51? NT 4.0? NT 4.0SP6? 2000? XP? I know win32 programs that won't work with half of the above mentioned.
Wouldn't it be nice to have a program work well with all of them? Also to have it so it did run on the other 2%?
I as a developer would love that. I personally don't care what Microsoft does or doesn't do with Java, it works well on the client. It has been a pain deploying Java apps, but that has gotten a lot better.
I do know that a small amount of the population who gets GRIDS are not gay, and I feel deeply sorry for anyone who aquires the HIV virus, but lets not forget where this came from.
Go and see the performance charts at Toms Hardware. You save some money by going with the nForce, but you loose performance.
Yes the sound is ok, but again for a small amount of money you can get a great sound system. The same could be said about graphics. Granted you could always add those later.
I forgot one thing the Nforce motherboards kinda suck. Why would you go with that one. Asus rocks but Nforce chipset? Also is your power supply at least 350W? That is what AMD reccomends. I have had good luck with 300W, but I won't be doing that anymore. To be honest if you are
You are correct about price if you are one of the 2% of the population who uses Linux on the desktop. (I use both windows and linux). However I don't think that Apple is marketing to you. I don't mean this in a bad way, but neither is HP or Dell. You speced out a system like I would. You are probably going to build the machine yourself; and don't forget a good fan for that microwave errr processor you have in it. A good 6u fan will also sound like a jet airplane next to you in your room.
Back to my point though... you are going to build this machine not buy a pre built machine from Dell or Gateway. This has great advantages to you but your labor must be factored in to the price. Also your ability to purchase the correct parts that will work well for your system must be factored in. All this is done for the average consumer of a Mac or Dell or HP. I haven't even touched on warrenty. Most of the systems I have built have great return policies, but I HAVE TO TROUBLESHOOT the system and then take the part out and send it back. Then put the new one back in.
Lastly, my main point is that Apple isn't targeting you. There isn't anything wrong with that, as long as they make a good profit, and provide good services to those people they do market to.
I don't know anyone who bought an apple because of price...
I guess I am a little slow, because I don't know if you are kidding with this post or not.
I will assume that you are serious.
There would be so many issues that this could currently not be done. The issue is more over who would control the information and the security. How would you feel about G.W. Bush controlling it? If that is ok how about Bill Clinton? I have a feeling that you would not be comfortable about one of those two.
The solution that I see is that the music companies better find another source of revenue. They will still sell CDs' and DVDs', but the days of everyone buing them is coming to a close. Well at least the days of them charging >$15 for a CD is going to end soon. I am a fan of Sony, but they are going to have to stop screwing artist and customers for their own fat profit. The pirates will always be able to hack any security methods they put up, and because of their ability to hack we should not have any type of "World" id card. At least not at this time, maby in 20 years.
You need to define what you mean by "real managers".
I have worked for a few I.T. managers and consider most of them excellent. Of those a lot of them just buy a particular brand like HP/Compaq or IBM or whatever. They don't care if it has an Intel or AMD chip, much like they don't care if it has IBM or WD drives. So if Dell,HP or IBM don't ship a Server with Hammer in it, then most corps won't ever see it.
I think this will be the case. I can see Intel saying to them that if they build a server with an AMD processor in it they will find themselves with a "shortage" of Intel processors. This could kill Dell or HP/Compaq or badly hurt IBM. So those companies won't piss off Intel. It is illegal to do this, but that is the way business happens here in the U.S.A.:-(
Now if HP, IBM or Dell offered two servers one with Intel and one with AMD, and the AMD was cheaper and faster in most applications; that would change things. I would say that a large percentage of managers would then choose AMD. They may not put an AMD server everywhere, but they would have a HUGE marketshare. Look how many servers are NOT Xenons now. Those would be good candidate for AMD servers.
Again, I need to know what you definition of "real" is.
We run our business on AMD currently. I consider myself a "real" person. At this point in time I would probably buy Intel, but a year and a half ago AMD was the best choice.
NOTE: I am not a manager, but in our organization managers don't choose hardware.
I would love to see the performance benchmarks on the old system and what it will be on the new system.
I have had numerous BAD experiences with IBM. I have seen 100+ million dollar projects go down in flames, because of them. I have NEVER seen them admit any fault though... they tend to blame the business, when things go wrong.
I don't doubt that DB2 CAN scale, just what will it take to get it there.
Also, just because you get the first drug for free (DB2), don't think that it will continue to be free with upgrades and support cost.
However, I don't much understand Solaris on X86. To the previous posters comments about 8 people being happpy, I agree. Try and buy Oralce for solaris on X86. Try to buy almost anything for Solaris on X86. It can be done, but now try and buy that same thing for Solaris on Sparc or Linux on x86. Better support, many more software options etc.
Maby this is why sun will be moving off of solaris for x86 and going to linux on x86.
People that are going to run mid to large scale applications do buy solaris, but they don't run it on x86 hardware.
Oh man what a great point, but I have Windows 2000, and Windows 9X at home. I don't have any additional software on them other than Microsoft software. How do I burn CD's? Also I have a DVD burner... same question.
I don't want to start a flaim war... but I will take a stab at this.
Apple has ONE core market now and SUN has the other. Both could spend time and resources trying to get the other market but neither can afford the resources to do that.
Could Apple take FreeBSD errr OSX and make a huge million dollar server? Yes, but it would come at the cost of them getting OSX better for the desktop. Can they afford that? I don't think so.
Could SUN make a workstation for the masses... I personally don't think so. Sun is in a weird position now in that their threat isn't from Apple but Linux on X86. They are going to have some tough descisions in the next few years if the Intel 64Bit stuff takes off.
I agree with your post, but our test have shown that Suns JDK 1.3 with Hotspot Server (yes Server) actually outperformed (barely) Microsofts JVM in a lot of test. Hotspot client wasn't out when I ran the test. I also would bet that the 1.4 JVM by Sun is as fast or faster. These test were with AWT, not Swing.
One interesting point is that we tested quite a few JVMs and the only ONE that didn't behave exactly as expected was Microsofts. It rendered things weird.
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Man you hit the nail on the head with Nintendo.
I believe that Microsoft made a HUGE mistake for not targeting the whole family, much like Nintendo. When they where pushing the Xbox, they kept saying that it was for the teenage boys and up. So a ton of people that had a teenager AND other small children in the house would buy Nintendo as their "new" system, so the whole family could use it.
I own a PS2 and have looked at both the Xbox and GC, but find the games are not that much better on either platform. I believe that this is why a BUNCH of people have not purchased an Xbox either. They currently own a PS2 and are happy with it AND they don't want to have two game systems in the house.
Maby I look at it a little different than most, but the way I see it is this.
1. The world is in a horrible economic state now. People's spending is WAY down. They will still purchase new games, but the thought of buying a new or second game system will not enter their mind. This assumes that they own a PS2, GC or Xbox now.
2. A lot of PS1 families will buy PS2 systems.
3. Families with smaller children will buy GC.
4. I believe Sony has over 90 million PS2's sold.
5. I believe that Microsoft has 5 million Xboxes sold.
6. I believe that Nintendo has 5 million GC sold.
It appears to me that the war is kinda over. If the economy was good or great then this may be a different story, but can Microsoft really expect 70+ million Xboxes to be sold this Christmass?? In a bad economy? If they don't then what number would be a success? 50 Million? 25 Million? 10 Million? If they sold 25 million then Sony still has the lions share of the market.
You obviously haven't had to talk to Indians for code development have you?
I am considered old by some people and I can only think of ONE time it was worse in recent American history, that was in the early 1930's. (No I wasn't alive then).
The early and mid 70's kinda sucked, but it wasn't as bad as now.
The very late 80's and early 90's kinda sucked to but not near as bad as now.
You point to unemployment as a barameter, but remember that it only last around 6 months. Also you have to look at the quality of jobs people had to what they have now. If someone was an executive sales rep and now greets people at Walmart, that is a GIANT setback to the economy.
Just to agree with the other posters...
:-)
:-)
Do you have ANY data to back this up? Why is it that they are considering lowering intrest rates again? It isn't because the economy is flat or growing.
Being conservative is one thing. I consider myself conservative, and I will admit that the economy was slowing down before GWB got in office, but to say that it is picking up makes you sound like an idiot. I guess you could point out that not as many companies are folding this year as last...
Just because someone is concervative doens't mean they have to take everything Rush says as gospil. Please remember that he still believes that Microsoft didn't do anything wrong.
If you feel like taking out some more agression, you are free to come over to my house any time and cut my grass :-)
This offer is open to anyone...
My wife and I have around an acre of land.
Ah but now it is down with no projected uptime, costing us $$$$$ and I have no one to blame!
:-)
Guess I am ready to outsource it....
few months later....
CEO: You back Fred!!???
Fred: Yep, I make more money now and work less hours.
CEO: When are those changes going in?
Fred: Oh you will have to submit the change request to the change request management team. They should be able to look at it in a month or so.
CEO: But this is an emergency change request!
Fred: Oh in that case I will hop right on it. You do realize that you will be billed overtime and night time rates
CEO: (Wishing that he never let Fred go, but to big headed to admit it). Go ahead and do it Fred.
2 months later...
New CEO replaces old CEO because board of directors wanted to know why I.T. cost went up 100million last year...
New CEO - We need to outource everything to India! That will save money!
1 year later...
New CEO gone. People realized that India isn't on the same timezone as their company, and people in their company speak English...
Newer CEO: Crap what the hell happend here. We need to hire some people.
The cycle starts again...
Well I have worked with a large number of H-1B people and lets be honest, we are talking about Indians. All but a handfull have had the SAME amount of training and skills that local workers have. Yes it is a pain to get them, BUT once you have them for a year or two they are your slave. Why you ask? Because if they switch companies then the time they spent here doesn't count for their american citz.
To the point that you said they are NOT cheaper. This is not true. I don't believe that you are factoring in all the benifits that an employee gets.
Lastly, I believe that there should be a tax on any software development not done in the U.S.A. (Can't speak for other countries). My point is this. If someone builds a car outside the U.S. and ships it here, there is a heafty tax on it. However someone can imploy near slave labor in India and not have to pay a dime extra in taxes. My big gripe is that most people in the U.S. pay over 60% of their income in taxes (all taxes), Indian developers in India don't "contribute" the U.S. taxbase at all.
I agree that Novell has done a good job at generating revenue from sources other than NetWare; but a lions share of their revenue still comes from NetWare. Specifically the people who buy NetWare are the same ones who buy their other products. I can't confirm this but I would bet that way less than 20% of the eDirectory users don't use NetWare as their primary file and print server. Those same 80+% users would probably not be using Edirectory or Zenworks if they didn't own NetWare.
Zenworks is good, and better now that it doesn't require the NetWare client, but it is expensive and comes up short against products like WinInstall.
Yes Edirectory runs on a lot of platforms. Do you know of any large Windows only shop or Linux and Windows shop that runs Edirectory? As far as the AIX and OS/390 version I believe that they don't actually load ANY directory service on those platforms, but it is actually a gateway product.
Novell has been saying for YEARS that they will make eDirectory so it doesn't require NetWare, but have you seen what their support is like for this environment? Check out Network World for a report they did on running Edirectory on multiple platforms (Linux, Solaris, Windows and NetWare). They got it to work, but the support sucked.
I have run NDS on Unix and NetWare and found keeping the DS versions synced almost impossible, and you don't want different DSes out there! Try and get support when NetWare requires a new DS.NLM and your *nix doesn't have one yet. It sucks.
Lastly, I want to state again that I am a fan of Novell! I hope they do great, but the competition is extreemly tough now. Understand that Oracle supports about every platform under the sun, and if they don't feel that they should port any 9i features to your NOS, that says something.
The solution for Novell is to become another Linux distro. They could then focus on NT and *nix systems, and all the other NetWare fans out there will continue to buy their products anyway.
I don't want to repeat every Item you put on the list, so I will do my best to summerize.
Point 1. You say that Novell is easier to use than Windows NT for most stuff. You point out NWAdmin and Console One.
I agree to a point, but take an average user that knows Windows and have them try and admin a Novell Network. I love nwadmin, and think console one is ok, but it is way different than most people know. Also, you forgot about all the console commands that the user/admin will have to know. NetWare still requires you to load inetcfg and filtcfg for a lot for admin stuff. Almost any monkey could setup a NT server. (Excluding Email)
Point 2. You named one large company that uses Novell and say that their tree (Directory) is the largest in the world.
Great point. Name 10 others! For every one you name there will be 20+ others who are using Windows and or some form of Unix. Also it helps when people on your board of directors also are on Novell's board... My point is that almost nobody is commiting to Novell for the future of their business.
Point 3. It would be bad for Novell to brand a Linux distro, because they couldn't charge for it.
This isn't correct. They could and they know it. Some people within Novell agree with me on this issue and have taken this idea up to "upper management". It has fallen on deaf ears.
Now to add some more points why they should get off NetWare and convert to a Linux Distro.
1. No cost in kernel development.
2. No cost in converting Apache to Novell
3. JVM development would not be needed
4. No money to IBM to port Websphere
5. No more FTP development.
6. They could focus on improving Linux for printing
7. They could offer support and service better than RedHat does.
Even Oracle would now run on "Novell" again. They could market Novell in areas that they NEVER were able to before. I know a lot of shops that would NEVER consider NetWare on their mission critical database servers. They tend to live and die Unix. Well now they could have it, and the LAN administrators could admin it with NDS.
Novell would then have a NOS that most people would consider for something other than file and print. Granted their printing is second to none.
Would these changes make Novell what it was 10 years ago? No! Would it keep them from a slow death? Yes.
Let me ask you one question. If Novell did this, and produced a quality product and service, whould you switch off of them?
Wow.. I don't want to repeat everything yet again, so I will answer your responses in order.
1. A LOT of trade barriors have been broken down, but it would be foolish to trade with 3rd world countries who use slave labor. Cancel 3rd world debt? The U.S.A. has canceled a lot, but WE loaned the money to these countries. We did NOT give it to them.
2. Yes the U.S.A. only helps it's friends in regard to military. Do you suggest otherwise? A lot of people dies in Vietnam.
3. Not sure what your point is. Does it take money to get elected to office. Yes. Does it help to have a common name? Yes. But there are a BUNCH of senators that came from meager beginnings. Another point would be Jimmy Carter (not that I was a fan), came from a poor family. Even Bill Clinton would have been considered "lower class" in some countries.
6. Look at where Gates started and where he is now. There are numerous other examples I could use. I don't think you disagreed with my point though...
8. Most people flee here for an opportunity to make something of their life, and it is a better country. Mexico doesn't seem to guard it's boarders from the U.S.A does it?
Anyway, got to go to lunch...
Later.
"Why the rest of the world hate Amercia?"
I will assume you ment hates America...
Could it be
1. All the money we give out every year to keep most 3rd world countries from colapsing?
2. The constant military help we give countries who need it?
3. A government run by the people for the people? Granted it could be better.
4. Having our women on equal ground with our men in every aspect of our lives?
5. Having most of our diverse religous and ethnic backgrounds get along together?
6. Having a country where a "common" class person can become the richest person in the world? Granted I don't like Bill Gates.
7. A country where EVERY child has the ability to get an education?
8. A country that thoughsands of people are fleeing to every year?
9. A country that produces enough food to not only feed themselves but a large part of the world?
10. A country where people could protest against the government and ANY political official and NOT get shot or have family members killed?
Or could it possibly be Bill Clinton? Ok, we are sorry for that one!
Nice to be able to type something like that and not have to worry about the government killing me.
I am not saying that the U.S.A. doesn't have it's problems, God knows we do, but to say the the rest of the world hates us is wrong. It would probably be better to say that a large part of the world envies the U.S.A.
Some extreemist will try and turn that envy into hate. Understand though, that those people that try to turn those differences into hate, are generally just using people to make themselves more powerfull and rich. They may or may not believe in what they are preaching.
I want to add to the above statement.
The reason Microsoft NEEDED Java was because Netscape owned a huge chunck of the browser market and Netscape shipped with a JVM. If Microsoft didn't get a JVM with their browser then nobody at the time would have used it. They then signed a very dumb contract with Sun. They thought they could get out of it, but they were wrong.
A lot of people responded to you already, but I will try and answer your quesiton.
You wonder why anyone needs Java on the client when 98% of the world runs windows. I would answer that with another question. What percentage run Windows 95? 98? 98SE? ME? NT 3.5? NT 3.51? NT 4.0? NT 4.0SP6? 2000? XP? I know win32 programs that won't work with half of the above mentioned.
Wouldn't it be nice to have a program work well with all of them? Also to have it so it did run on the other 2%?
I as a developer would love that. I personally don't care what Microsoft does or doesn't do with Java, it works well on the client. It has been a pain deploying Java apps, but that has gotten a lot better.
Oh they mean GRIDS.
I do know that a small amount of the population who gets GRIDS are not gay, and I feel deeply sorry for anyone who aquires the HIV virus, but lets not forget where this came from.
The original name should not have been changed.
Go and see the performance charts at Toms Hardware. You save some money by going with the nForce, but you loose performance.
Yes the sound is ok, but again for a small amount of money you can get a great sound system. The same could be said about graphics. Granted you could always add those later.
I forgot one thing the Nforce motherboards kinda suck. Why would you go with that one. Asus rocks but Nforce chipset? Also is your power supply at least 350W? That is what AMD reccomends. I have had good luck with 300W, but I won't be doing that anymore. To be honest if you are
You are correct about price if you are one of the 2% of the population who uses Linux on the desktop. (I use both windows and linux). However I don't think that Apple is marketing to you. I don't mean this in a bad way, but neither is HP or Dell. You speced out a system like I would. You are probably going to build the machine yourself; and don't forget a good fan for that microwave errr processor you have in it. A good 6u fan will also sound like a jet airplane next to you in your room.
Back to my point though... you are going to build this machine not buy a pre built machine from Dell or Gateway. This has great advantages to you but your labor must be factored in to the price. Also your ability to purchase the correct parts that will work well for your system must be factored in.
All this is done for the average consumer of a Mac or Dell or HP. I haven't even touched on warrenty. Most of the systems I have built have great return policies, but I HAVE TO TROUBLESHOOT the system and then take the part out and send it back. Then put the new one back in.
Lastly, my main point is that Apple isn't targeting you. There isn't anything wrong with that, as long as they make a good profit, and provide good services to those people they do market to.
I don't know anyone who bought an apple because of price...
I guess I am a little slow, because I don't know if you are kidding with this post or not.
I will assume that you are serious.
There would be so many issues that this could currently not be done. The issue is more over who would control the information and the security. How would you feel about G.W. Bush controlling it? If that is ok how about Bill Clinton? I have a feeling that you would not be comfortable about one of those two.
The solution that I see is that the music companies better find another source of revenue. They will still sell CDs' and DVDs', but the days of everyone buing them is coming to a close. Well at least the days of them charging >$15 for a CD is going to end soon. I am a fan of Sony, but they are going to have to stop screwing artist and customers for their own fat profit.
The pirates will always be able to hack any security methods they put up, and because of their ability to hack we should not have any type of "World" id card. At least not at this time, maby in 20 years.
You need to define what you mean by "real managers".
:-(
I have worked for a few I.T. managers and consider most of them excellent. Of those a lot of them just buy a particular brand like HP/Compaq or IBM or whatever. They don't care if it has an Intel or AMD chip, much like they don't care if it has IBM or WD drives. So if Dell,HP or IBM don't ship a Server with Hammer in it, then most corps won't ever see it.
I think this will be the case. I can see Intel saying to them that if they build a server with an AMD processor in it they will find themselves with a "shortage" of Intel processors. This could kill Dell or HP/Compaq or badly hurt IBM. So those companies won't piss off Intel. It is illegal to do this, but that is the way business happens here in the U.S.A.
Now if HP, IBM or Dell offered two servers one with Intel and one with AMD, and the AMD was cheaper and faster in most applications; that would change things. I would say that a large percentage of managers would then choose AMD. They may not put an AMD server everywhere, but they would have a HUGE marketshare. Look how many servers are NOT Xenons now. Those would be good candidate for AMD servers.
Again, I need to know what you definition of "real" is.
We run our business on AMD currently. I consider myself a "real" person. At this point in time I would probably buy Intel, but a year and a half ago AMD was the best choice.
NOTE: I am not a manager, but in our organization managers don't choose hardware.
Great question!
But what are they currently using?
I would love to see the performance benchmarks on the old system and what it will be on the new system.
I have had numerous BAD experiences with IBM. I have seen 100+ million dollar projects go down in flames, because of them. I have NEVER seen them admit any fault though... they tend to blame the business, when things go wrong.
I don't doubt that DB2 CAN scale, just what will it take to get it there.
Also, just because you get the first drug for free (DB2), don't think that it will continue to be free with upgrades and support cost.
Let me first say that I am a fan of Sun.
However, I don't much understand Solaris on X86. To the previous posters comments about 8 people being happpy, I agree. Try and buy Oralce for solaris on X86. Try to buy almost anything for Solaris on X86. It can be done, but now try and buy that same thing for Solaris on Sparc or Linux on x86. Better support, many more software options etc.
Maby this is why sun will be moving off of solaris for x86 and going to linux on x86.
People that are going to run mid to large scale applications do buy solaris, but they don't run it on x86 hardware.
Oh man what a great point, but I have Windows 2000, and Windows 9X at home. I don't have any additional software on them other than Microsoft software. How do I burn CD's? Also I have a DVD burner... same question.
GREAT point!
Imagine when it gets to around 50%. When it starts to get around 10% desktop share lookout!
Competition is a wonderful thing!
I don't want to start a flaim war... but I will take a stab at this.
Apple has ONE core market now and SUN has the other. Both could spend time and resources trying to get the other market but neither can afford the resources to do that.
Could Apple take FreeBSD errr OSX and make a huge million dollar server? Yes, but it would come at the cost of them getting OSX better for the desktop. Can they afford that? I don't think so.
Could SUN make a workstation for the masses... I personally don't think so. Sun is in a weird position now in that their threat isn't from Apple but Linux on X86. They are going to have some tough descisions in the next few years if the Intel 64Bit stuff takes off.
I agree with your post, but our test have shown that Suns JDK 1.3 with Hotspot Server (yes Server) actually outperformed (barely) Microsofts JVM in a lot of test. Hotspot client wasn't out when I ran the test. I also would bet that the 1.4 JVM by Sun is as fast or faster. These test were with AWT, not Swing.
One interesting point is that we tested quite a few JVMs and the only ONE that didn't behave exactly as expected was Microsofts. It rendered things weird.