On June 25, Brian Chase wrote:
> > > The gov't will keep them afloat for as long as they need them.  Within the
> > > next few years I see SGI going the way of Cray, HP Convex, and Thinking
> > > Machines.
> >
> >   HP/Convex (more specifically, the Exemplar line) are doing pretty
> > well nowadays, from what I've read.  Those are some ALL-BALLS-POWERFUL
> > systems.
> >
> >   TMC is flat-out gone, as far as I know..
> >
> >   But Cray...did Cray go out of business when I wasn't looking?  Last I
> > heard (yesterday) they were doing pretty well.
> >
> >   Or was that not what you were suggesting...?
> 
> My point is that they're going to fall to the wayside and into marginally
> profitable niche markets.  They won't offer any real competition to the
> bigger players.  One only needs to look at the graph for 5 year market
> value of SGI to see that they've been in steady decline for the duration
> of that time.
...
> The bad guys in total have twice as much money as the good guys in total.
> It's hard to beat them.  HP is valued at $53 Billion, but I'd imagine most
> of that is related to the diverse range of PC peripherals, and their near
> monopoly on test equipment.  They also have a fairly healthy PC business
> and their servers are going the way of Itanium.  Apple Computer is valued
> at about $8 Billion now but they're being kept alive in part by Microsoft.

  Brian, this would make some sense if they were all selling competing
hardware in the same markets.  They're not.  Learjet may make more or
less money than Ford...it just doesn't matter.

       -Dave McGuire