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back to article Sun's Schwartz worries over 'economy, not future'

Times might be tough. The server and operating system racket might be taking hits. But Sun Microsystems ain't scared. As one of the few titans of the tech industry who writes a blog and keeps it current, Jonathan Schwartz, Sun's president and chief executive officer, basically does his own public relations as well as being …

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  1. Mad Hacker
    Pirate

    Hmmm

    He moves his hands a lot.

    So I've always wondered if you had to make a video for the web like this, should you stare straight into the camera, or a little to the side, like in an interview? I think staring straight into the camera just doesn't look right.

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  2. Lou
    Flame

    The article and its header are in direct oposition ...

    Wow - as we came to expect - another well written article from TM:

    2nd par - line 1 Schwartz blogs "Let me start by joining the chorus of those worried about the global economy."

    Then he say "Which is all to say, I'm neither worried about the role information technology will play in the economy, nor am I worried about the relevance of Sun's offerings."

    This in my book means he is worried about the economy (like everybody else) but he is not worried about technology’s role or the relevance of Sun’s offerings.

    Times must be hard at El Reg - you probably had the body of the article and were looking for something to hang it off - and voila Jonathan says something which may have relevance as it included the words worried, future and economy. And then the header “Sun's Schwartz worries over 'economy, not future'”. So the header says he is and the article says he isn’t? Make up you mind!

    Best of all you end with this gem - "Best I can figure, if you are not just a little bit worried about the future right now, you might just be dead. Or a politician or CEO that has to be a cheerleader. I am not holding pom-poms, and no one I know is either" Which part of his second paragraph did you get? Apparently in your version of this future he did not say he is joining the "chorus of those worried about the global economy."

    Nice little brag you slipped in though - "Luckily, I know how to hunt and fish and farm if it comes to that, and my parents have lots of land in upstate New York".

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  3. Mike
    Black Helicopters

    Its all up to the media

    and you are part of it. If you predict doom and gloom, whether you have any basis for it or not, the word will get around and surely you will get doom and gloom. Everyone will wait in their little hiding places and wait for the "no doom and gloom" message. What we need is more people to take the stance that sun has, which is yes, there are some bad times, but we predict good times right around the corner, best to get in on it now.

    I am really getting tired of the naysayers in the media telling me about how bad it is, and about how things could get worse, and how this plan or that package has problems. Tell me, tell the people, tell everyone, that it may not be perfect, but you see things looking up, only then will people come out of hiding and actually do the things necessary to make it happen.

    Predict me some freakin' happy times, the morons will eat it up, and I will have happy times.

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  4. David Halko
    Thumb Up

    This is refreshing...

    With all of the gloom and doom speaking coming from over the pond in America, it is nice to see someone there with some positive views!

    Now, if the rest of the market could deliver some news like Schwartz!

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  5. amanfromMars Silver badge
    Coat

    Ok ...Down and Dirty , Up and at 'em with AIMighty AtomIQ Software Flair.

    Lou, take a chill pill. You're ranting.

    The economy will follow the Future.

    And when Sun fans read this they can consider this question asked of the Ponytail .....Do you have a Sunny Plan for IT, Jonathan [Schwartz], and are you on AI Phish for Leading Men and Champion Women .... 42Entertainment types into Edutainment and AIMMORPARGs but Virtualised for Real Environmental Plays/Theatres of Operation and Systems of Command and Control?

    If so ...... you're in with at least a Chance of being Future Perfect Relevant in ITs Relativity Stakes.

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  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I want some of what Swartz is smoking

    Can't people recognize a posture when they see one? Schwartz's company is a turd circling the bowl and he knows it. Whenever a CEO or a politician tells you that he's not worried about something, it is a clear indication that things are actually worse than we know. It the economy doesn't turn around soon and companies continue to put big IT refreshment projects on indefinite hold, there is no way Sun can survive - at least not in it current form and without a bankrupcy filing. Unlike IBM, HP and others, Sun doesn't have the cash to ride this out and they've no place to turn to get any. Look for Sun to be carved up and sold off at bargain basement prices before the end of the year.

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  7. Matt Bryant Silver badge
    Happy

    Mmmmm, pom-poms.....

    I find these cheerleaders much more uplifting than any politician or CEO! I'd definately would like to get closer to pic #1!

    http://www.nfl.com/photo/photo-gallery?chronicleId=09000d5d80c68c20

    As for going all survivalist in upstate New York, no thanks! You guys get real winters with far too much snow. I intend on doing any surviving on an island much closer to the equator, thanks.

    In the meantime, I do agree that the media are milking every recession story for all their worth, but that's because we are in a deep economic downturn which many economists have already labelled a recession. So Schwartz, a man that helped take Sun from the dizzy heights of the dotcom bubble to the lows of imminent delisting, is not really the guy I'd turn to for business advice anyway, let alone economics.

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  8. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    I want some of what Matt is smoking

    1) at least spell his name right, ok?

    2) "Look for Sun to be carved up and sold off at bargain basement prices before the end of the year..."

    They were saying that last year. And the year before that. And the year before that. And.....

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  9. Bill
    Unhappy

    Damn it bryant!!

    I hate the fact that every time you mention something political, I agree with you... Go back to your Sun bashing hate speech. It tells me that everything is right with the world.

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  10. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Sun is so messed up

    Last quarter every single rep was paid on 100% attainment. No matter if they had zero sales or 300% of sales....same pay...no bonus...no kickers....no nothing...why? the IT systems are so messed us because of the move to a single system.....which is why during the announce call they show billed revenue....not actual....no clue what actual is per brand.

    Glad I am gone

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  11. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    That way my post, not the infamous Matt Bryant

    "They were saying that last year. And the year before that. And the year before that. And....."

    None of that is important. What is important is that Sun's market cap fell by over 50% between July, 2008 and January, 2009. In the month of February alone, their market cap fell by some $600M and it continues to fall on a daily basis. The only reason Sun is not facing de-listing by Nasdaq is that Nasdaq temporarily suspended delisting in October, 2008. Sun's losing money and they've slashed their R&D budget to a mere $900M.

    Look, we're a Sun shop and have been for 10 years. My company spends $5M/year on average with Sun. But not anymore. We're kicking them to the curbe and will be migrating to HP or IBM. Why? Because over the last two years, they can get nothing right. We've had serious reliability problems with every piece of hardware we've purchased since 2006. We've had more failures in the last 12 months than all failures for the previous nine years combined. Sun's just losing it, plain and simple. The final straw was when both system drive mirrors on a mission-critical server went titsup at the same time. The machine was on a Gold service contract with a 24x7 upgrade. Sun did not have any drives in the area benchstock and it took four days to get them shipped to us from Seagate. Sun told us that they no longer stock most parts, but have them drop shipped from the manufaturer. So how can they meet a four hour SLA on a gold contract? They can't, but they don't care anymore. Had we not had an old server in the store room from which we could cannibalize a drive, we'd have been screwed. We have a technology dependant company to run. I can't affort to have the Sun religion that so many who post here have. I have to live in the real world. I've managed Sun shops for 18 years. I've always liked Sun's hardware and service. But that's all gone now; I hate it, but that's the way it is. Maybe Sun can turn things around. But we can't afford to wait on them to do so. We've already been waiting on them for two years.

    I just received a call from my Sun rep while I was typing this post. He's leaving Sun to go to HP. He'd been with the company for 12 years. Why is he making this move? He says that we're not the only ones dumping Sun. He doesn't see a future for the company. He's not the only one leaving. Several others are jumping ship while they can.

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  12. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Re: That way my post, not the infamous Matt Bryant

    Not Bryant huh? LOL... Same rambling. Same poor grammar. Same poor spelling... Pretty shaky story if you ask me... Try again Matt. No one's buying it.

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  13. Anonymous Coward
    Alien

    Re: Re: That way my post, not the infamous Matt Bryant

    I still can't figure out why Matt insists on always attacking Sun if he does not work for HP. If he worked for them then it would make sense. Otherwise it's just sad... I've never seen such a devoted fanboy before.

    It's all alien to me...

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  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Think what you will, But I am not Matt Bryant....

    ....And I don't hate Sun. We are reluctantly dropping Sun out of sheer business necessity. I have 200 Sun servers in my data center, including four max'ed out E25Ks. I wouldn't be making this move if it weren't absolutely necessary. Perhaps my view point seems alien to some of you because I have a completely different perspective from a system administrator. I report directly to our CIO and, because of this, I have to think like a CIO. I have to look at the business aspect as well as the technology. Were I to advise him that we should bite the bullet and ride this out with Sun, I'd be shown the door. We've had several private meetings with SVPs from Sun and they've made a lot of promises. To date, they have not delivered on a single one of them. So, what are we to do, ignore this? Are we to pump $10M this year into a company that's shown it can no longer execute?

    You folk who think I'm the idiot Matt Bryant have religion. It's that simple. You worship at the Church of Sun. That's a very bad thing for an IT professional to do. You only lock yourselves in on a single way of thinkiing. Good IT professionals look at all possibilities and choose the best fit for their requirements. Sun has long been one of the first vendors we look at. The truth is, Sun is falling apart and they've aready announced that they are taking the company in a whole new direction. That direction may benefit Sun in the long term, but it is inconsistent with our business model. IBM and HP both have good, solid technology and the question for us is which of them have offerings and a long-term roadmap consistent with our business requirements and strategic plan.

    BTW, there is no way Matt B works for HP. He doesn't know what he's talking about most of the time, but makes it up as he goes. I stopped reading his moronic posts after the third one, as it is apparent that his is not a stable mind. In my recent dealings with HP, I can tell you that they are masters of FUD, but at least their FUD makes sense.

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  15. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    re: Think what you will, But I am not Matt Bryant....

    The reason I think you are Matt is because of the before mentioned reasons and the fact that the first time you defended yourself as not being Matt Bryant, no one accused you of being Matt Bryant. Of course, I do agree that Matt doesn't know what he's talking about...

    Also, to defend Sun is not being Religious; but, to keep attacking Sun the way you do is beyond religion and into the land of zealotry.

    Keep up the good work Matt. I think your brain dead zealotry is pushing more people away from HP and toward Sun...

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  16. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Why don't you actually read what the poster is saying.

    Yes some one did accuse him or her of being Matt. See the post "I want some of what Matt is smoking" above.

    He/she wasn't attacking Sun but only telling us what a lot of people already know. That you insist on calling this an "attack" only proves his/her point about religion. Only a zealot would make such a silly statement. And if Sun is so great, why would it need defending by a bunch of geeks on a website? A major multi-national corporation that is at the top of its game doesn't need defending. Some of you come in and attempt to start a flame war on a near daily basis and succeed only, as in this case, in making yourselves look foolish and uninformed. I'm reminded of the old Mac vs. PC weirdies.

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  17. Adam
    Dead Vulture

    One Trick Ponies?

    Could it be that a lot of these "Church of Sun" types are abit scared about their jobs, being Solaris one trick ponies and not realising that the game has moved on.

    Are they all holed up in a big datacenter full of purple racks somewhere in the mountains of Virginia, ready to shoot it out with the FBI when SUN finally pulls out of the hardware business?

    The gravestone cos thats SUN's hardware business!

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  18. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    re: Why don't you actually read what the poster is saying.

    Ahhh... You're right, and unlike you Matt, I will admit when I am mistaken...

    If you, Matt, did not insist on spreading FUD on every single Sun article, then no one would see fit to call you out on your nonsense. As far as I can see, most of the HP articles go without much comment, while the Sun articles are full of comment. This is because you, Matt, insist on making lame, unsubstantiated comments directed at either Sun, Shwartz, or anyone stupid (in your, Matt's, opinion) enough to actually like Sun's products. To say that others are spreading FUD is like my four year old stating that another like minded child "DID IT FIRST!" It is both childish and laughable.

    You are a Troll and at that I commend you on your abilities. However, a Troll does not necessarily believe what they are saying. They just want to get a rise. You appear to think that you can take Sun down, or at least speed up the process, all by yourself. That is very sad. I can think of several psychological reasons for a person to do what you do, but I am not a paid psychologist, so I will keep my opinions on that matter to myself. It does, however, make me feel sad for your bitter life. To actively and aggressively attack others is a sad character trait, and for that I pity you. I will be thinking about you Matt... Perhaps you can get past your hate and just live and let live.

    Making comments as AC will not hide you Matt. Your writing style is too obvious. Your vitriol too consistent.

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