Re: [cobalt-developers] nice knowing you all!

[Jeff Lasman <jblists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

corliss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> It's not true, it's a *proposed* merger, which means it still has to be
> approved by the voting share holders and the board.  You guys may be all for
> it, but it's not a done deal yet.  If the acquisition goes through, it is not
> planned to be completed until Dec. 31.  A lot can happen between now and then.

It's gonna happen, get used to it <smile>.  The stock-premium was 40% at
announcement time; though I look for it to go down, 40% is hefty enough
so it'll stay attractive enough to enough of the stockholders.  Many of
whom are employees, even top employees who were in on the deal, I'm sure
(entirely my speculation; I have NO inside information).

> I love this quote
> (http://yahoo.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-2814541.html?pt.yfin.cat_fin.txt.ne):
> 
>         However, in the long term, Sun expects to move
>         Cobalt's products over to Sun's UltraSparc CPUs and
>         its Solaris operating system, Schwartz said.

I figured out most of this without reading the quote; it makes sense to
migrate at least the hardware.  I didn't forsee the switch to Solaris,
and frankly, I still don't; I just see "Schwartz" as seeing a different
future.  I see no reason for Sun to put Solaris into their low-end
package while supporting Linux (as they're beginning to do) in their
high-end packages.

But of course "Schwartz" is Schwartz, and I'm me, so only the future
will tell <smile>.

(To put this in perspective, in 1998 I announced that the next version
of Windows would be an upgrade both from BOTH Win98 and from WinNT, and
would be called Windows 2000.  I was called every name in the book on
lots of newsgroups and email lists, and Microsoft waffled a few times,
and Win98 has still to join the camp ["real soon now" <wry grin>], but
it turns out I was right <smile>.  I have a good track record; I've been
a futurist in this industry since 1980.)

When I first figured out what would happen, it really bothered me.  Then
it stopped bothering me.

Why?  see below...

> So much for Linux, eh?  That'll win you some friends.

For those of us on the developers list, possibly.  But we're an
extremely small part of Cobalt's market.  And for appliance users it
won't matter at all.  Do you really care if Sears changes the motor
manufacturer for their washing machines?

Oh, you do <smile>?

Jeff
-- 
Jeff Lasman <jblists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
nobaloney.net
P. O. Box 52672
Riverside, CA  92517
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