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

["Robert G. Fisher" <rfisher@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, Sep 22, 2000 at 09:43:53AM -0700, Jeff Lasman wrote:
> 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.

I've only seen marginal acceptance of Linux.  I get the impression
that the only thing Sun likes about Linux is the hype generated
around it gets more people looking to UNIX type systems than 
just the Microsoft platforms.  Long term, Sun probably wishes Linux
would die, more competing unices mean there's less profit margin
for their solaris software after all.

> 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?

True, most people won't care, except for one tidbit -- people did
seem to care when Cobalt switched from mips to the amd k6 as this
allowed people to use the standard i386 rpm's out there for various
titles.  Switching to a Sun hardware and solaris system will mean
that those users won't find free tidbits as easily; although, if
free tidbits were what they were looking for, that comes at the 
price of taking the time to rtfm, something most app boxes don't
care to do.

Look at Cisco's equipment -- how many people use these appliances?
How many people care what's in these appliances? 

-- 
Robert G. Fisher                  Sitestar.net, Inc. 
Senior System Engineer            (540) 666-9533 x 116