|
|
|
|
|
|
by Mountain_Skies
2029 days ago
|
|
|
Sun had an unhealthy Microsoft obsession. When I was a senior in college, Microsoft came to campus and gave a two hour presentation on why we should work at Microsoft. About a month later Sun came to campus and gave a two hour presentation on why we should not work at Microsoft. Sun workstations were very common in our engineering program so we were ripe for the picking but Sun never explained to us what was so great about working for them. Well, except for one absolutely ridiculous video clip of Scott McNealy standing on the roof of Sun HQ, playing the electric guitar. Eyes were rolling out of everyone's heads upon seeing that. Looking back at interviews and industry articles from that era, there is a common theme of Sun hating Microsoft. Lots of companies and people hated Microsoft but Sun seemed to make it their central ideology. As a result, they took their eye off of making great technology that customers could use to solve their problems. It's a pity because they were so far ahead of the game at that point that they could have developed into something wonderful instead of being absorbed by Oracle, with little trace left besides Java sleepwalking through the modern era. |
|
|
I think basically everyone did back then. There was a pervasive understanding that if you were small enough, Microsoft would use underhanded business practices to crush you if you became a threat. If you made a compelling product, Microsoft would clone it and use their might to make it win.
It felt like taking a pottery class with a grizzly bear in the room. Really hard to be like, "I should just make the prettiest bowl I can" when you know at a moment's notice your head might be swiped off.