Well, I like your picture more than I like mine, and in fact a number of these comparisons give me some comfort.
I had no idea Symphony was Open Office. I have the CD on my desk but I'm only installing it now. Do you see the possibility that Solaris could supplant Linux in the IBM suite? On Mar 19, 3:16 pm, Joe Data <[email protected]> wrote: > On Mar 18, 6:56 am, Steven Herod <[email protected]> wrote: > > >http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123735970806267921.html > > > Personally, it's probably good for 'Java', bad for everything else you > > might like about the Sun software and hardware ecosystem. > > I think it's probably good for Java, too. Whether Sun does the right > thing with Java and it's other software projects or not, it's all in > vain if Sun, the company, can't survive. Looking at the financials, > Sun is the Dead Man Walking of the IT industry. Back on Oct 9, 2008, > long before the bottom fell out of the stock market, Sun supposedly > had close to $3.5 billion in the bank (http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/ > 2008/10/09/sun-microsystems-a-lesson-in-failed-cosmetic-surgery/). > Today there were only around $1.6 billion left (http:// > techpulse360.com/2009/03/18/ibm-to-buy-sun-microsystems/). In five > months, Sun burned through $1.9 billion in cash, meaning they could be > completely out of cash in four months, give or take a month or two > (yes, this calculation may be oversimplified, but I stand by the > trend). > > So let's see, where does Sun revenue come from? 60% come from server > and storage hardware that go to financial institutions and telecoms, > mostly in the U.S., and that was down 14% year-to-year > (http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/investor/earnings_releases/Q209_SLD.pdf, slide > 4). Sorry, but no short-term rescue in sight there, not in this > recession with a lot of banks expected to go under soon. Plus, > starting tomorrow, the phones in all Sun accounts will ring off the > hook because the Sun competitors will play the FUD card and try to get > customers to switch away from Sun. > > Given the state of Sun, don't you think that big, conservative > customers feel safer when IBM backs Java, a company with deep pockets, > not a company on life support? And from all companies out there, IBM > as the second-biggest software company in the world has the most to > lose if Java goes under. Look at their five software brands (http:// > www-01.ibm.com/software) - three of them run on Java: WebSphere is > Java + Eclipse OSGI kernel, Lotus (on the client) is Java + Eclipse > RCP + Open Office fork (and probably Java + Eclipse OSGI kernel on the > server), Rational is Java + Eclipse. Out of pure self interest, IBM > will maintain Java, given that (like Linux) it's the one thing that > runs across all their systems - mainframe, PowerPC, X86/64. > > > AIX v. Solaris > > Wrong. IBM declared a number of years ago officially that AIX will > eventually migrate to Linux, so it's "Solaris vs. Linux". But IBM > supports its products forever if that brings in money - heck, they > supported OS/2 ten years after it died (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ > Os/2#Fading_out). My guess: IBM supports Solaris for a long time but > offers migration to Linux. > > > Power vs Sparc > > No idea what would happen here. > > > Lotus Symphony vs OpenOffice > > Wrong: Lotus Symphony is "Eclipse RCP plus unknown OpenOffice > version" (http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=2992), so I don#t see > a lot of conflict. > > > Websphere vs Glassfish > > Wrong: Either "WebSphere + Glassfish" or "Glassfish vs. Geronimo", > since Glassfish could be the low-end open source complement to the > high-end commercial WebSphere, just like Geronimo. My guess: IBM > would merge these two in one shape or another. > > > Eclipse vs Netbeans > > Yes, that's a tough nut - can't see how they get united, and Eclipse > underpins at least three of the five IBM software brands in one way or > another. My guess: Netbeans gets spun off into a foundation, gets an > initial check from IBM and is on its own from then as n open source > project without corporate backing. > > > DB2 vs MySQL > > Wrong: "DB2 + MySL" (see above - MySQL as low-end complement to DB2). --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
