hi, Sun really seems to be stepping up their plugging of OOo in the media. Here is another OOo mention by a top Sun exec. Sun's open source strategy really seems to be coming into focus. Over and over again, Sun's execs are talking about open source increasing the pie by bringing more and more people on line. Sun's biggest revenue years came during the dot-com bubble, and I believe that Sun senior management really believes that Sun's well-being is tied to the well-being of a free and open Internet. At the risk of repeating myself, Gary Edwards said recently that Sun has contributed to defending open standards at meetings where Google was missing in action. Sun sells the hardware and the software that helps companies take advantage of viewing the open network as the computer. Many people have criticized Sun as not "getting" open source, with its "not-really-open" open source licenses, and with Jonathan Schwartz criticizing the GPL. But look at the fact that OOo 2.0 is going to the LGPL. I think that Sun senior management sees that the second wave of the Internet is coming, and it is tied to open source and open standards. I think that Sun sees that there is a huge business case to be made for it riding that wave, as it did the first wave. Here is Jonathan talking about OOo:
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584_22-5879292.html?tag=zdfd.newsfeed Coincidentally, Gary Edwards has told me recently how X-forms in OOo 2.0 is going to really bring OOo 2.0 / SO 8 into parity with Word and even pass it in many regards. On way is by allowing end users to participate in web services, which is exactly what Jonathan says in that article. Again, Sun execs are refining that "network is the computer" message. And here is an article that talks about the relative troubles that Microsoft is having with the Internet: http://slashdot.org/articles/05/09/23/1536238.shtml?tid=109&tid=187&tid=95 The interesting thing about that article is that it quotes Clayton Christensen's "disruptive innovation" theory as it applies to Microsoft. Our film, the Digital Tipping Point, is going to make the case that Microsoft's struggle with the disruptive power of the Internet is just starting. Sun was disrupted by Linux, but IMHO Sun saw what was happening to it early, and is recovering by integrating commodity computing successfully into its business model. Microsoft is mistakenly digging into integrated solutions, and is going to be hurting as a result. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I think that we could see Sun and Microsoft switch places as far as market capitalization. Here's that quote from the article by Cnet reporters Jim Kerstetter<[EMAIL PROTECTED]:Microsoft%27s%20nightmare%20inches%20closer%20to%20reality>and Elinor Mills<[EMAIL PROTECTED]:Microsoft%27s%20nightmare%20inches%20closer%20to%20reality>that got Slashdotted: http://beta.news.com.com/Microsofts+nightmare+inches+closer+to+reality/2100-1012_3-5877197.html "Microsoft, it seems, is faced with a classic "innovator's dilemma," as author Clayton Christensen<http://dw.com.com/redir?destUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.claytonchristensen.com%2Fpublications.html&siteId=3&oId=2100-1012_3-5877197&ontId=7343&lop=nl.ex>put it in his groundbreaking book that defined why tech giants usually miss the next wave of innovation. Microsoft execs made what looked like the right decisions at the time. As a result, the cash came in. The core product, Windows, became bigger and more complicated, and getting updated versions became harder to get out the door. *"Plotting the counter-offensive* "The burden of that success, as the theory in the book goes, makes it harder to respond to the next generation of tech innovators. Years ago, Microsoft and Apple rattled IBM. Now Google, some believe, has a chance to rattle Microsoft by providing a cheaper, easier-to-use alternative. "Every other time Microsoft was attacking from below," said one former executive. 'Now (Microsoft) is being attacked from below and they don't know how to deal with it.'" The article also says that Microsoft is trying to follow Google down the road of becoming a media company, but Christensen writes that there is a first mover advantage when it comes to using disruptive technologies. Companies deploying disruptive technologies get the processes and distribution channels that they need to succeed, and then it becomes hard to catch up with them. Sun and Google are getting familiar with the open source world, but Microsoft is just looking in from the outside with the same mystified looks on their faces that the RCA folks had in regarding transistors. Upstart Sony mastered transistors, and RCA never caught up. RCA is a shell of their former selves as a result. Here's an interesting thought. Of the 6 billion people on earth, only 1 billion live in countries with average incomes of $10,000.00 USD and up. The remaining 5 billion people live below that line, and of those 5 billion, half live in countries with average incomes of $4,000.00 USD. Microsoft is experiencing piracy in those countries, but Sun is already doing business in many of those countries, among them China. We all know that Sun is planning to be involved with the development of 200 million desktops in China, as per Scott McNealy's 2003 Comdex announcement. I don't want this list to just be Sun echo chamber, especially since they are basically hosting it through Collabnet, so I'd love to here where I am off-base. By the way, as you all know, I am an attorney, and I don't work for Sun. Christian Einfeldt 415-351-1300
