Sun One Step Closer to Full Eclipse -- Redmond Channel Partner

Barney's Blog

Sun One Step Closer to Full Eclipse

I admit it: I'm a huge fan of Sun Microsystems. I like companies with creativity and guts. Sun is no me-too company.

But it soon may no longer be a company at all as the European Union this week approved Oracle's proposed $7.4 billion buyout. It's such a done deal that Larry Ellison is planning a Hugo Chavez-style five-hour company and press event next week on the matter.

I hate when innovative companies get bought. We no longer have an independent Lotus, Compaq or Digital Equipment Corp. Fortunately, there are new companies cropping up all the time. But the sad truth is that in IT, real power is concentrated in the hands of a few.

What's your favorite defunct computer company? Tell us all by writing dbarney@redmondmag.com.

Posted by Doug Barney on January 22, 2010 at 9:25 AM

Share this Page

Reader Comments

Sat, Jan 30, 2010 enrico lazzerini pisa - italy

Ferguson Big Board of course. Here
http://elazzerini.interfree.it all info i collected.
Regards
EL

Wed, Jan 27, 2010 EVVJSK

From looking at your original article(especially the length) and the responses you quoted from Mr. Evans I have the following: 1) the shortness of your comparison, implies it wasn't really a rant, so Mr. Evans should have probably thought better about his comments. 2)Why use Hugo-Shavez (you could have chosen some other fairly famous people who are long winded, but who have less of a negative connotation). For example, some who wanted to make a comparison about someone who has a small moustace could use Charlie Chaplin or Adolph Hitler, but the two conjure up extremely different images and personas (and chosing one over the other may have some underlying meaning intended or unintended by the author). 3) Today's media and society are full of horrible comparisons (i.e. death panels, Conservatives accusing President Obama of being Hitler, etc... It is no wonder why people are on-edge and overly sensitive to comparison of anything as negative as Chavez. 4) I have noticed an extremely bad editorial trend in many IT publications. The articles (sometimes through no fault of the author, but rather the editor) choosing Article titles which are outrageous and not really representative of the Article contents, just to try and draw attention to the article to sell some ad-space (authors have had to apologize for their titles and have indicated the titles were not chosen by them, but by management). This includes saying that "something" being talked about in the article is either the BEST or WORST thing in the world, when it is pretty clear to everyone that it is not. Readers and Americans across the board are tired of bad comparisons and hyperbole. To summarize, I think Mr. Evans went a bit to far, BUT with the state of America today, it is not difficult to understand why he might have been a bit on edge and feeling the need to vent.

Wed, Jan 27, 2010 Beasel

SGI

Tue, Jan 26, 2010 Doug Barney

Hey Brown Pelican, The item on InformationWeek was uniformed. If you read my sentence, I was comparing the five-hour presentation to a Hugo Chavez speech. Chavez is famous for droning on hour after hour. Somehow the Information Week blogger missed that point. It was a simple metaphor about the length of a speech. The blogger, Bob Evans, is the only one I know who misread what I said.

Mon, Jan 25, 2010 Brown Pelican

Barney, I read about your post at InformationWeek's Global CIO column: http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2010/01/larry_ellisons_1.html Can you clarify what you meant by the comparison between Chavez and Ellison? Thanks for keeping the discussion real.

Mon, Jan 25, 2010 meh

nutscrape!

Sat, Jan 23, 2010 JG

My former employer, Ashton-Tate, /d/i/e/d/ was bought by Borland and for much of the same reason as Sun's demise: companies decide that instead of sticking with their core competencies (to use a buzzword bingo term), they should expand and try to have a finger in every pie. It never works.

Sat, Jan 23, 2010 sun4ever global

I will be Sun, think Sun, dream Sun and follow Sun for as long as possible, so the mail that mister ego tripper Schwartz send out to all Sun just to forget Sun is just idiot. for me its like this Sun is my Company, and Oracle just another ego tripper with money.

Fri, Jan 22, 2010 Alex Pummer

I am not a software guy and not even a digital one, but I really admired Digital Research.

Fri, Jan 22, 2010 Way Upstate NY

My most missed HW companies/products have been menitoned, so with SW companies it is PowerQuest and Central Point Software.

Fri, Jan 22, 2010 Jody Dandridge Denver, Colorado

It is really too bad that Sun could not continue to Stand alone on its own. I had the pleasure of working for Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) for 10 years and Sun Microsystems, Inc., for 12 1/2 years. I enjoyed GREAT times at both companies. Both companies had great people, management that believed in folks, and kept ideas fresh, and was very creative. I worked for DEC in the mid 80's so got to enjoy the good times, and started with Sun in the mid 90's, so certainly enjoyed great times there. I only hope to land at a new employer in the near future where I can not only work hard, but enjoy every moment of it. At DEC and Sun you were able to not only work, but enjoy what you did and feel part of a family, a culture.

Fri, Jan 22, 2010

Interesting -- both Forte and Netscape (products and employees) were acquired by Sun. Unfortunately Forte's products died a quick death, Netscape's a slow one, after Sun took over. Sun's track record with acquisitions has been horrible.

Fri, Jan 22, 2010

Commodore, I loved all that power, back in the day :) Though not defunct, Novell when it was a real player.

Fri, Jan 22, 2010

Amiga, I used to work in TV broadcasting. (TV technology companies also go thru cycles of consolidation...it's called capitalism.)

Fri, Jan 22, 2010

Etak

Fri, Jan 22, 2010 Bill

Forté

Fri, Jan 22, 2010 Tim Wessels

Kaypro of course. Non-Linear Systems became Kaypro after using their aluminum bending skills to fashion a 28lb. luggable computer based on the Xerox "Big Board" with a Zilog Z80 processor and CP/M operating system. In 1981 for $1895 you got the Kaypro II with a tremendous bundle of software. Who can forget the circus tent Kaypro erected in San Diego to store product when they ran out warehouse space. Kaypro was chaotic and very cool at the time.

Fri, Jan 22, 2010 True

Sad but true.. Very true

Fri, Jan 22, 2010 sixftnine

Netscape!!

Add Your Comments Now:

Your Name:(optional)

Your Email:(optional)

Your Location:(optional)

Comment:

Please type the letters/numbers you see above

Partner Resources

Hot Topics

More Resources

Barney's Blog