A lot of the comments posted here so far seem to approach this announcement as though Sun were attempting to break into the home computer market. I don't think that's what they're attempting to do. The article says they're aiming it at software developers - few "at-home" developers are going to want one; as people have pointed out, they're too expensive, they're not powerful enough... the list goes on.
Look at it from another point of view: That of a group of developers in a company. I think Sun are aiming this at a company who'll be bulk-buying workstations for a department or project. If a company is going to equip its developers with Unix workstations, it's not going to care about quality sound, or high performance graphics, or the fact it's got IDE disks instead of SCSI - the company will care about cost per unit, and the answer to the question "Will it run ${development editor of company choice} ?".
I'm a developer at a place that uses Sun stuff for the vast majority of its servers, and a fair proportion of the infrastructure software is written in-house. We also have Ultra 5 workstations for the developers. Yes, they're slow. What does it matter when you have a server to develop against? If you're writing large applications, you're going to have a development server, if you're not, then you don't need that spectacular a machine. Personally, I end up using the Ultra 5 for running a few dozen xterms, a mail client, a newsreader, and netscape, and as long as I'm careful with the number of netscape windows open, it's fine. Would I be justified in expecting more from a corporate desktop machine?
If I needed high quality graphics, then why get an Ultra 5 in the first place? Get an Ultra 60, or an SGI. If I wanted a truly powerful development server, then you pay the money for it. Most large companies can afford to do this - and IME most smaller companies wouldn't want to.
That's not what the Ultra 5 is for, and that's not what I believe this move is aimed at.
The only thing that keeps Americans from adopting metric measurments is arrogance (i.e. not-invented-here syndrome).
So why do Americans call it the English system? I'm English, and I've only ever heard it called the Imperial system. Besides which, England is getting more and more metric as time goes on... the Imperial system, imho, tends to be used when giving imprecise measurements (I'm 6 feet tall, the gap's about 4 inches), or used in traditional slang (A pint of beer:) - Although I could get used to ordering Litres of beer)
having recently graduated from the University of Reading
I graduated from the University of Reading a few years ago, after doing a course in Cybernetics and Computer Science. Prof. Warwick is quite a competent PR person as well as a competent professor.
Indeed based on his books we will all be in termination camps before the chips come on line.
What you have to remember is that he's attempting to gain publicity. By taking predictions to their extreme, he can gain far more exposure and provoke more reaction than if he simply came out and said what was more likely.
Some of the things the department have done are more mundane-sounding but ultimately more useful. Now, I've not been there in years, and I don't know what they're doing now, so the focus of the department and the research may have changed. They have, however, produced a series of things that may be more prevailant in the long run:
A solar panel that tracks the sun across the sky
Mobile robots that avoid collisions and locate recharge stations when they're low on power
Inter-machine communication using the above mobile robots - they tell each other what they've found out
... the list goes on, mainly in autonomous control systems, but without someone at the front proclaiming they can reach for the stars, they'll never receive the budget to get a few feet off the ground.
Slashdot Mirror
A lot of the comments posted here so far seem to approach this announcement as though Sun were attempting to break into the home computer market. I don't think that's what they're attempting to do. The article says they're aiming it at software developers - few "at-home" developers are going to want one; as people have pointed out, they're too expensive, they're not powerful enough... the list goes on.
Look at it from another point of view: That of a group of developers in a company. I think Sun are aiming this at a company who'll be bulk-buying workstations for a department or project. If a company is going to equip its developers with Unix workstations, it's not going to care about quality sound, or high performance graphics, or the fact it's got IDE disks instead of SCSI - the company will care about cost per unit, and the answer to the question "Will it run ${development editor of company choice} ?".
I'm a developer at a place that uses Sun stuff for the vast majority of its servers, and a fair proportion of the infrastructure software is written in-house. We also have Ultra 5 workstations for the developers. Yes, they're slow. What does it matter when you have a server to develop against? If you're writing large applications, you're going to have a development server, if you're not, then you don't need that spectacular a machine. Personally, I end up using the Ultra 5 for running a few dozen xterms, a mail client, a newsreader, and netscape, and as long as I'm careful with the number of netscape windows open, it's fine. Would I be justified in expecting more from a corporate desktop machine?
If I needed high quality graphics, then why get an Ultra 5 in the first place? Get an Ultra 60, or an SGI. If I wanted a truly powerful development server, then you pay the money for it. Most large companies can afford to do this - and IME most smaller companies wouldn't want to.
That's not what the Ultra 5 is for, and that's not what I believe this move is aimed at.
S.
The only thing that keeps Americans from adopting metric measurments is arrogance (i.e. not-invented-here syndrome).
So why do Americans call it the English system? I'm English, and I've only ever heard it called the Imperial system. Besides which, England is getting more and more metric as time goes on... the Imperial system, imho, tends to be used when giving imprecise measurements (I'm 6 feet tall, the gap's about 4 inches), or used in traditional slang (A pint of beer :) - Although I could get used to ordering Litres of beer)
S.
(PS I graduated from Reading two years ago in Human Cybernetics... hence I know a thing or two!)
In that case, we probably know each other. Drop me a line if you want.
S.having recently graduated from the University of Reading
I graduated from the University of Reading a few years ago, after doing a course in Cybernetics and Computer Science. Prof. Warwick is quite a competent PR person as well as a competent professor.
Indeed based on his books we will all be in termination camps before the chips come on line.
What you have to remember is that he's attempting to gain publicity. By taking predictions to their extreme, he can gain far more exposure and provoke more reaction than if he simply came out and said what was more likely.
Some of the things the department have done are more mundane-sounding but ultimately more useful. Now, I've not been there in years, and I don't know what they're doing now, so the focus of the department and the research may have changed. They have, however, produced a series of things that may be more prevailant in the long run:
... the list goes on, mainly in autonomous control systems, but without someone at the front proclaiming they can reach for the stars, they'll never receive the budget to get a few feet off the ground.
And has the best range of shirts!
And Dr Mitchell had the weirdest range ;)
S.