Linked by Eugenia Loli-Queru on Tue 3rd Dec 2002 01:59 UTC
Recently, a few independent departments (Solaris, java, Netscape and other middleware) at Sun Microsystems got integrated into one, the Platform/Software Group. We had a quick chat with Mr John Fowler, Sun Software's CTO about Solaris 10, Java, the competition and more.
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MS vs Sun:
But even if MS could, would it want to buy Sun?
The answer of course is no. Sun doesn't make money, and Microsoft is not in the business of making bad business decisions. Microsoft is very good at making money on technology, and realizes that producing your own hardware is just not the way to do that. Oh sure, MS makes keyboards, mice, game devices, and such. These are fairly cheap though and are mostly designed to enhance market presence, and specifically sell more software. XBOX is a great example. MS doesn't make money on XBOX units. In fact, they lose money. They DO make money on software titles and platform licencing though, that is the catch.
If we compare some interesting financials:
Sun:
Market Cap: 12.37B (Shares Out: 3.115B)
Earnings: -0.16 $/shr Employees: (from above) ~39K
Earnings/Emp: ~-$12.8K/yr
MS:
Market Cap: 303.1B (Shares Out: 5.346 B)
Earnings: 1.68 $/shr Employees: ~55K
Earnings/Emp: ~$163K/yr
Microsoft is not so much a bohemith as an ultra efficient capitalist machine. You'll notice that by total employee count MS is not much bigger than Sun. The trick is that they understand the business of making money on computers better.
Sun vs Apple:
I found it a little disheartening that Mr. Fowler dismissed Apple in such an out-of-hand way. The price point for these Xserve servers is really not at all outrageous. From my standpoint as an admin, I would rather have a fully supported corporate UNIX server on which my users can run Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, as well as any multimedia apps they are interested in. Apple's remote desktop seems a grand solution to me. Also, since Apple is practically in bed with MS, they've done a good deal of work to integrate with Windows networks. I just don't see myself with a bunch of PCs and Macs on people's desktops and a Solaris server behind it all. I would definitely buy an Xserve before I'd buy a Solaris server box.