[geeks] Sun a possible takeover target - rumours

[Michael A. Turner]

> > > What could Sun do to fix things up a bit?
<Snip> 
> > Of course, real geeks like Solaris the way it is, but we 
> are a small portion
> > of the planet and most of us don't have corporate purchasing power.
> 
> good point!
> 
> Hobbs.
> 

	I think that right there is Suns real problem. Corporations don't
have corporate purchasing power anymore. Sun is suffering from the same
problem that Apple has for ever IMHO. They are WAY WAY to exspensive. I just
placed an order yesterday for a sunfire 280R to run a mission critical
database server. If the vendor of the software had no specified Sun, and had
been adimant about it, we most likely, no scratch that we would have, bought
Intel. CIOs and heads of IT departments don't have money to purchase
upgrades anymore. They look at a sunfire like that one, which pricetagged in
at $35K, and then they look at a compaq, something like the 380 series
running dual Xeon proccesors at $5K, and they go for the Xeons. Yes sun is
more stable, yes there hardware is less prone to failure, but it does still
happen. Managers are not willing to pay 7X the price of an intel server that
can run the same apps for maybe a 2X performance boost and a drop by 3% in
the chance that the machine will fail.
	This places the people who can afford that in a very limited band of
corporations. This band has reached saturation in purchasing, and since the
stuff they bought was bought specifically to last for years and to not have
to upgrade you are stuck with a diminishing customer base. 
	Personally I think that sun needs to head lower in what they offer.
Create an entry level server that is actually an entry level server, not
starting at the $20K that they currently do. Maybe they could also leverage
a truly stable home machine, something like the Imac or G4s that had a nice
GUI for dumb people. Sell it as the safe alternative for grandma, never need
to have her supported on it etc. Get it to run windows app, use wine or
something similar. Basically do what Lindows is trying to do but on sun
hardware and eat several other companies lunch at one. Then again, I may be
just a babbling idiot also.
	
Michael A. Turner
Systems Engineer WHRO
michael.turner at whro.org
http://www.whro.org