Comments by "David H" (@DavidHalko) on "The Dawn and Dusk of Sun Microsystems" video.
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@Erin-Thor - you did pretty well with your description about Sun!
One of the things that Sun did well was bundle all their software in a single package:
- networking built in, Microsoft needed network stack
- email built in (Microsoft needed a UNIX gateway, then email client, and individual client licenses for the software)
- printing built in (Novell or other print software was needed for Microsoft)
- compilers built in (Microsoft required purchasing of compiler software)
- GUI built in (Microsoft needed Windows on top of DOS)
- graphical debuggers (really no equivalent under DOS & Windows)
- Remote Desktop capability (Windows NT needed partners like Tektronix & Citrix)
Some high end apps excelled under Solaris:
- FrameMaker Desktop Publisher (no real equivalent in Windows, for awhile, and MS Word still chokes on large documents today)
Honestly, Sun was likely cheaper than the PC World of nickel & dime’ing people to death, but small departments with shadow IT could get PC’s and individual licenses, which allowed them to grow organically, under the radar of IT, who only had the budget for large inclusive minicomputer systems like Sun or DEC.
This presentation did not seem to understand how the business models differed & contributed to Sun’s downfall.
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