Subject: Re: Slightly Off-Topic...
To: Dave McGuire <mcguire@neurotica.com>
From: Brian Chase <bdc@world.std.com>
List: port-alpha
Date: 06/26/2001 00:39:47
On Tue, 26 Jun 2001, Dave McGuire wrote:

>   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.

And in the computing world, those different markets will end up being:

  [1] Gov't defense/research/security facilities paid for by US taxpayers.
     (Systems competing for this market:  Cray, SGI, IBM, Sun E10K, and
      some cheap clusters of Intel based Linux PCs.)

  [2] The rest of it.

It's gonna get pretty crowded in market #1 once Wintel owns market #2--
and they definitely want to own #2.

Maybe 10 years from now I'll be very lucky.  I'll get to be one of the
handful of people left in the world who will be allowed to work at one of
the DOE research facilities on computer systems that don't suck.

-brian.