On Tuesday 15 March 2005 12:31, Mr Rigel Anrndt wrote: > Let the conspiracy theories begin! Who says SUN is using this > community to devise a competitive Office suite, then to close the > open source community and take the microsoft partnership a step > further. Huh huh? Spread some [EMAIL PROTECTED] around LOL :P
This is really weird. Sun and Microsoft selling products together. I can understand Sun's commitment to its shareholders. They are a business, not a religion. On the other hand, IMHO, this is a perfect example of the limits of corporate beneficence. Corporate behavior is ultimately too narrowly constrained by its legal duty to its shareholders. Without us, communities who are motivated by freedom and passion, the pragmatics of business would form a hard outer boundary for software innovation. Sun does provide, what, 90% of the code and 90% of the funding to keep our server alive. So we are somewhat dependent on Sun, which is a mixed blessing, as this news shows. On the other hand, Sun is also dependent on us. It is utterly impossible that Sun would be able to compete head to head with Star Office versus Microsoft Office without us. We provide marketing, legitimacy, and the OOo code is forming a new open standard which will erode Microsoft's dominance on the desktop. In traveling for the Digital Tipping Point film, we have seen OOo in places where they could never afford to buy StarOffice. Sun wants very badly to compete with Microsoft on the desktop and beyond. Working with your competitors is a good way to learn their business practices and eventually use that knowledge against them. Of course, Microsoft is also learning a lot about Sun in the process. But Microsoft has a commoditization problem (us) that Sun doesn't have. Also, Sun is doing a much better job of responding to the commoditization of the operating system than in Microsoft. Would I prefer that Sun never had to do business with Microsoft? Yes. Am I surprised that Sun and Microsoft are at least giving the appearance of offering solutions for their customers with combined products and services? No. Do I think that Microsoft's dealings with Sun will mitigate their problem with the commoditization of their best two products, Windows and Office? No. At the end of the day, Microsoft still continues to flee up market, while Sun is developing the skills to offer products and services wrapped around open source. The tide is eroding the sand from under Microsoft's castle, and Microsoft is responding by trying to build bigger sand castle walls. The more tightly Microsoft relies on integrated solutions in a business environment that calls for modular solutions, the less able Microsoft will be to turn to modular solutions when the integrated solutions are obviously done. But you're right. Business is nasty, and it is a nasty sight on the surface to see Sun partnering with the borg. > > Rigel > > Diane Mackay <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > http://blogs.msdn.com/eec/archive/2005/03/03/384874.aspx > > http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/03/11/ms_gets_sunkit/ > > > ----------------------------------------------------------------- >---- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > --------------------------------- > Do you Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Small Business - Try our new resources site! --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
