Sun Rays do have firmware that must be upgraded every time you patch the SRSS software. The fact that this happens mostly seamlessly sort of hides this, but it is there.
Fair point, but you don't always need to patch the firmware and compare the difference between updating WinTerms and PCs to a Sun Ray installation.
At some point, the first generation of Sun Rays will become obsolete as technology advances and pushes them past their design limits. At that point, Sun will stop supporting them and they will become doorstops like everything else technology eventually becomes.
That goes without saying, but again compare things with what else is out there on the market. What devices do you have lying around from mid 1999 that can quite happily have you accessing the latest Solaris or Linux?
The biggest draw back I see to the Sun Rays is their apparent inability to do full screen full motion video. That alone puts a pretty big limit on their capabilities and will forever keep them in the "dull office machine" market.
True up to a point - but as always, choose the right tool for the job.
I would also like to know why these things still sell for $249 list. When you can open up the Sunday paper and get a Dell PC with a 2.5Ghz processor, 256MB RAM, DVD drive and a monitor for $229. The Dell has about 10 times the amount of physical materials and complexity as the Sun Ray. These things should be selling for no more than your average cable modem.
I'd love to see Sun Rays costing less, but these things are always a question of volume economics. Dell put together machines from common components and have no equivalent of SRSS to support and develop. They also don't put together PCs that will support a version of Windows shipping in several years' time.
Chris -- Christopher Saul Engagement Architect, Desktop & RFID Sun Microsystems SEE Mobile: +971 50 650 7041 Office: +971 4 366 2634 Ext: x12634 _______________________________________________ SunRay-Users mailing list [email protected] http://www.filibeto.org/mailman/listinfo/sunray-users
