I think Apple will produce a surprise. They won't be able to hide it from Sun's investors, but I expect the first proper, public confirmation, product announcement, and strategy brief to be when Scott walks on stage, shakes hands with Steve, and announces that Apple owns Sun.
Yes, Sun OSS'd a bunch of stuff, but they did it in a way that protects their kernel level IP from being integrated with Linux. That's still valuable to Apple (hell, it even ties in nicely with Darwin). But not as valuable as the relationships Sun has with large enterprise customers that still don't yet use Linux for everything.
So you think Apple does want a lice of Enterprise?
I think this article puts its finger on a point. People come out & say things like 'Apple will never replace windows because abc'. Or 'Iphones will never overtake nokia because 345'. Then the assumption is that they want to.
Thing is, I seriously doubt they want macs to be the no 1 pc. A world where such a huge market is dominated end to end by one company long term seems implausible. Keeping that kind of a grip would require price cutting concession & a whole lot of other stuff they don't like to do.
A cherry picked slice of a big pie is a nice thing to have. A cherry picked slice of several huge pies is great. With macs, they own the whole box. Of the people willing to pay a premium, they take a big chunk. They can leave those that aren't behind. And those that need something Apple doesn't want to give.
The biggest problem I've encountered with Apple in a business setting is Open Directory. You give it the evil eye and it gets corrupted; requiring restoration from backup (You have a backup, right?). BerkleyDB just doesn't cut it. Apple's documentation and KB could use some major overhauls, too...
In contrast, I can drop kick a Windows 2003 server out the 12th Floor Window and Active Directory keep running, and if I do have problems the KB can at least give me a lead on finding a solution.
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[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 29.7 ms ] threadYes, Sun OSS'd a bunch of stuff, but they did it in a way that protects their kernel level IP from being integrated with Linux. That's still valuable to Apple (hell, it even ties in nicely with Darwin). But not as valuable as the relationships Sun has with large enterprise customers that still don't yet use Linux for everything.
I think this article puts its finger on a point. People come out & say things like 'Apple will never replace windows because abc'. Or 'Iphones will never overtake nokia because 345'. Then the assumption is that they want to.
Thing is, I seriously doubt they want macs to be the no 1 pc. A world where such a huge market is dominated end to end by one company long term seems implausible. Keeping that kind of a grip would require price cutting concession & a whole lot of other stuff they don't like to do.
A cherry picked slice of a big pie is a nice thing to have. A cherry picked slice of several huge pies is great. With macs, they own the whole box. Of the people willing to pay a premium, they take a big chunk. They can leave those that aren't behind. And those that need something Apple doesn't want to give.
The stylish alternative works as a strategy.
In contrast, I can drop kick a Windows 2003 server out the 12th Floor Window and Active Directory keep running, and if I do have problems the KB can at least give me a lead on finding a solution.