George Toft wrote:

"Fred A. Miller" wrote:

...

IBM sells.....

Fred ___________________

Fred,

Thanks ever so much for posting this stuff. . .

I'm working with two others in a group effort at Hawaii Pacific University. As a part of our MSIS program, we have to analyze a company (Sun Microsystems) and propose a product/service that will give them sustainable strategic competitive advantage over their competition. We chose a product and service called Java Home Computing that will deploy $500 thin clients connected to a server (AT&T WorlNet, AOL, or independent ISP). The owner will never need to buy software as everything is provided on the server. The articles you are posting just adds fuel to show that Sun is already well on its way to deploying exactly what we are proposing with its strategic alliances with AT&T and AOL.

SUN's made some "bad moves" in the past, as all companies do, but I think they're on to something good this time.

Think it will sell? $500 computer where the owner never needs to upgrade the software ever? (All upgrades are performed on the server, so the clients always run the most current version.) MS would probably try to kill it.

YES....there's a market for it. There is a large part of the computing public who don't know "anything" about their 'puter, if they have one, and don't want to either. They just want it to "work" for them. I think this is the one thing that keeps Apple in business. As to MickySoft, yes, if they perceive it as a threat to them, they'll do whatever they can to "kill it!!" Good luck, and regards, Fred ----/ / _ Fred A. Miller ---/ / (_)__ __ ____ __ Systems Administrator --/ /__/ / _ \/ // /\ \/ / Cornell Univ. Press Services -/____/_/_//_/\_,_/ /_/\_\ fm@cupserv.org - To get out of this list, please send email to majordomo@suse.com with this text in its body: unsubscribe suse-linux-e Check out the SuSE-FAQ at <A HREF="http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/"><A HREF="http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/</A">http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/</A</A>> and the archiv at <A HREF="http://www.suse.com/Mailinglists/suse-linux-e/index.html"><A HREF="http://www.suse.com/Mailinglists/suse-linux-e/index.html</A">http://www.suse.com/Mailinglists/suse-linux-e/index.html</A</A>>

"James (Jim) Hatridge" wrote:

On Tue, 8 Dec 1998, George Toft wrote:

...

Think it will sell? $500 computer where the owner never needs to upgrade the software ever? (All upgrades are performed on the server, so the clients always run the most current version.) MS would probably try to kill it.

Anyway, thanks again.

George

Hi George;

This is a VERY BAD idea.

#1 Here in Europe a local call cost 10c per 4 minutes at the low rate time. Being "on line" would put me in the poor house very quick.

Well, Jim, I guess this is where our cultures differ. Where I live (in Hawaii), I'm on a cable modem 24 hours/day for $40/month. ISP's charge as low as $7.95 per month and $15 per month for unlimited access.

#2 Why should I want to always have the latest version? To be bunt, it takes me longer to learn and get comfortable with software than it takes the guys on the net to come up with new. My wife is still using Wordperfect 4.2!

"The Latest And The Greatest" seems to be an American thing. Personally, I prefer stable, functional software. For example, I think MS stopped producing usable (we know about stable) software in early 1995. Excel 95 and 97 are far less usable than Excel 5 (long work-related story here). Most of the guys in my office are always downloading this patch and that patch; downloading the latest demo of the latest game. If anything is more than 6 months old, they ask "Why are you using THAT old thing?" Again - cultural differences.

#3 I don't want my private files on your machine. Yes, I know that you'll say "But, we'll keep it private!" -- BS if the suits in charge want them from you they'll get it. Why? Because you (or whoever) will not go out of business or go to jail to protect my privaty.

Personal files are kept locally.

#4 Like was said earlier M$ or whoever will love charging me & thee a few cents here and a few cents there. In the end it'll be big money.

Bonus for our side.

#5 A 500$ computer is no big saving now. Today I saw an ad, here in Germany where things are not cheap, for a normal 300 Mhz computer at 999 DM, about 588$. For me to even think about it, the computer would have to be free or next to it. (The anwser would still be "NO" :)).

Since Java would be the platform, existing hardware could be used.

#6 One last thing, I can see a time when you buy a 500$ computer (or may even be given one if you use their service) you will be stuck with a certain provider. I.E. if you change from (for example) AOL to M$ you must change computers because it will not work on the other network.

Good point - you know MS would NOT want to join the party if it has to do with Sun. What works for some can be a bad idea for others. Thanks for the input - I've forwarded it to my teammates. At HPU we are culturally diverse - but most international students are Asian. We do have a few from Germany, but it's a small percentage. So it's a very enlightening experience to see how others view the world, or how the world views America. George - To get out of this list, please send email to majordomo@suse.com with this text in its body: unsubscribe suse-linux-e Check out the SuSE-FAQ at <A HREF="http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/"><A HREF="http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/</A">http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/</A</A>> and the archiv at <A HREF="http://www.suse.com/Mailinglists/suse-linux-e/index.html"><A HREF="http://www.suse.com/Mailinglists/suse-linux-e/index.html</A">http://www.suse.com/Mailinglists/suse-linux-e/index.html</A</A>>