Re:Ask HN: What caused the downfall of Sun Microsystem?
by Gibbon1 on Saturday June 15, 2024 @06:04AM
(#40688710)
A few things I remember.
Early 90's a few old friends that worked as security guards all bought 486 clones so they could play DOOM.
Probably about the same time Autocad and Schematic Capture running on a PC was fast enough.
Couple of years later friend that worked for big corp got a sun work station as his work computer. Quickly noticed his officemates PC took 1/3 the time to compile.
Electronic suppliers chasing high PC volumes didn't give an rats ass about companies like Sun's rounding error volumes.
I remember Unix boxes as being clunky. To boot insert the boot floppy. Power failed, your file system is toast.
I feel like this all point to them failing to innovate out of their core competency and create cash cow products.
Early 90's a few old friends that worked as security guards all bought 486 clones so they could play DOOM.
Probably about the same time Autocad and Schematic Capture running on a PC was fast enough.
Couple of years later friend that worked for big corp got a sun work station as his work computer. Quickly noticed his officemates PC took 1/3 the time to compile.
Electronic suppliers chasing high PC volumes didn't give an rats ass about companies like Sun's rounding error volumes.
I remember Unix boxes as being clunky. To boot insert the boot floppy. Power failed, your file system is toast.
I feel like this all point to them failing to innovate out of their core competency and create cash cow products.