Bizarro World
Oracle is very strong in applications - at least that's what execs on the company's earnings call say. But in the United States v. Oracle antitrust case being heard in San Francisco, its apps lineup is transformed into feeble nestling about to be crushed bytake your pickSAP, Microsoft or IBM.
Microsoft Business Solutions folks swear their wares are not for big enterprises but for the more modest small- and midsized businessesexcept when Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says MBS apps will suit most enterprises.
In a related about-face, IBM loves Linux except when it doesn't. Industry watchers dearly enjoy watching IBM and Hewlett-Packardand now even Sun Microsystemstrying to prove which company loves Linux more. This, even though a published report on Forbes.com recounts how IBM's own sales goons are trying to thwart a large AIX account from moving to Linux. (AIX? That's IBM Unix to you.) Of course, that tidbit was recounted by an HP exec.
Still, there's a whiff of truth here. If AIX systems are pricier than their Linux counterparts, and sales guys get paid a percentage, guess which systems they'll push? You don't need to break out the slide rule for that one. And one could certainly bet that HP and Sun reps are not exempt from that line of thought.
As these Unix powers lob grenades at each other, trying to win the other guy's Unix accounts with their own Linux solutions, Windows is the only possible beneficiary. And once again, Microsoft is blessed with having some of the most inept adversaries ever.
And speaking of The Big M, there was lots of mail in response to a column equating the current Microsoft and the old IBM. Most agreed that Redmond has gotten bureaucratic and remains too arrogant for its own good.
One lambasted me for calling the company boringwhich in fact, I never did. In his weblog Scobleizer, Microsoftie Robert Scoble took exception with some points (the pushback tradition is alive and well in Redmond, he said.) But he concurred with other items, most notably on "The A Word." Arrogance, he said, "will be the downfall of all of us. Thanks for the reminder."
Keep those cards and letters coming, on IBM, on Linux, on all of the bizarro software world.
What are your thoughts? Let me know at (781) 839-1223 or via e-mail at [email protected].