

"10 people who don't matter" -- 2 years later. - kajecounterhack
http://money.cnn.com/2006/06/21/technology/10dontmatter.biz2/index.htm

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SwellJoe
So I think the jury is still out on Jonathan Schwartz, even with yesterdays
disappointing earnings statement. The previous three quarters were profitable
for Sun (which was a pretty amazing turnaround--Sun was in _deep_ trouble
before Schwartz took the helm).

The thing that a lot of folks haven't realized is that the nerds have
recaptured the flag within Sun. And, you know what happens when a bunch of
nerds are on a mission. That's right: <http://tinyurl.com/67user>

OK, so maybe putting the nerds in charge isn't a guarantee of success, but it
is a prerequisite in a tech company.

Everybody can probably think of one cool thing Sun is doing, because it
touches on your specific area...but when you do an aerial survey of the whole
Sun "cool stuff" landscape, it looks really impressive:

Zones - A sweet elastic computing solution. More efficient than Xen (due to
different model...more like vservers on Linux, but it's actually stable enough
to use), allows quite impressive run-time configuration like scaling resources
up and down, etc.

JVM for dynamic languages - Sun has drunk the Koolaid on dynamic languages,
and is actively contributed to a bunch of them. I think they are beginning to
understand that Java is not the important thing to come out of Sun, but the
JVM and that huge library is.

Cheap hardware - Really, you can buy Sun boxes for not too much more than
equivalent Dell systems. And, Sun boxes are _nice_. They don't have as many
low-end options as Dell, of course, but once you get into high end gear where
Dell loses its huge quantity advantages, Sun is a viable option.

MySQL - Most popular database in the world. Hard to top that for importance in
the industry. During web 1.0 they had to team up with Oracle to offer the
whole solution...now they've got the full stack.

Caroline - Utility computing, elastic computing, "App Engine", call it what
you will...Sun is building a commodity solution to the problem.

Will all of this make up for years of resting on their laurels? I dunno...but
it's too early to count them out, and Schwartz seems to have played an
important role in the change.

~~~
rglullis

      call it what you will...Sun is building a commodity solution to the problem
    

The problem with Sun is precisely that. They are turning everything into a
commodity. This is good if your strategy is to make money on a complementary
product.

The thing is: they forget to make money from complementary products. They are
commoditizing the software, the hardware and everything they do... but where
are they going to sit when the dance stops? Where do they intend to make
money?

~~~
SwellJoe
I just listened to Schwartz speak at Startup Camp a few hours ago and he
discussed just that issue...I was surprised by how many folks were questioning
him on the subject from different angles. Basically, "why have you made
everything free?" (Because they have...nearly everything Sun builds is Open
Source, all the way down to the CPU designs.)

His answer was, "because you [startups] wouldn't use it if we didn't". He went
on to explain how startups using Sun means that in a year, maybe two or three,
when those startups grow into big companies they will need the kind of
infrastructure that only Sun (and maybe a couple of other companies) can
provide. It made sense when he said it.

------
friedbaloney
I would say that business2.0 doesn't matter, since they went under about 6
months ago.

------
ldambra
He may be not someone who matters anymore in terms of "money & success", but
my bet is on Linus Torvalds -- 100 years later. He is the only one on that
list who has created something that is transcendental, wich won't stop after
his death because it goes beyond himself and is slowly but surely shaping
History, in a virtually unstoppable way.

Oh, and I'm a proud Windows XP user, no fanboyism inside :)

~~~
RK
I think your argument also works to say that he _doesn't_ matter (by design),
in that his project can continue with or without his active participation.

If you read the kernel mailing list, there is sometimes the question of "what
happens if Linus gets hit by a bus?" He always says that it shouldn't
adversely affect development... :)

~~~
DenisM
The ultimate goal of a warrior is to lay down his sword.

------
Skeletor
I think they are 100% wrong about Facebook being an also ran. The author is
coming from the perspective of a large corporation type and fails to see that
not selling out and not compromising your ideals will win in the long term.
The author would have put Craigslist's founder up on that list and a few years
ago Larry Page and Sergey Brin for not selling out when they had the chance.

~~~
nostrademons
Their argument is really that MySpace has already won. There may be some truth
to that - MySpace is about 4 times bigger by the numbers, and in most other
industries, 80% market share = winner. It's hard for us to see that because
we're from the demographic that tends to use FaceBook, but remember that 2/3
of Americans don't even _go_ to college, let alone use a social networking
site centered around the college experience.

I can kinda see FaceBook vs. MySpace as being today's Apple vs. Microsoft (or
IBM) battle. FaceBook's cultivated a sort of elite brand - "we're better than
Myspacers simply because we're on FaceBook". But remember that Microsoft
eventually won: the masses, by definition, are far more numerous than the
elite.

~~~
SwellJoe
I'm curious where you get the "MySpace is about 4 times bigger" number? My
understanding was that Facebook had grown to be larger than MySpace in some
foreign markets, and that it was about half the size in the US. It is still
firmly in second place--MySpace usage is still growing roughly on pace with
Facebook so Zeno gets his revenge--but certainly more than 25% as popular as
MySpace.

I'm not saying Facebook is worth 15 billion (that'd be stupid...I'm talking
Stave Ballmer level stupid), but one can't say they've lost to MySpace, when
the market is still wide open worldwide, and Facebook seems to know how to
execute internationally than MySpace.

But, I think Facebook will lose, in the end, to a few dozen companies that
build a better garden without the walls. Each will be smaller than Facebook,
but they'll end the reign of Facebook and MySpace with a wholly different
process of social networking. (I think a single destination "social portal" is
as doomed to failure as the whole web 1.0 "portal" idea turned out to
be...portals will always be less interesting than the whole Internet, so when
the whole Internet is socially enabled the social portals will falter. The
oracle has spoken.)

~~~
nostrademons
It was based on a userbase of 80 million for MySpace (from the article) and 20
million for FaceBook (which I'd heard as of about spring '07). However,
apparently FaceBook has now grown past at least 30 million
([http://www.insidefacebook.com/2007/07/10/facebook-rockets-
pa...](http://www.insidefacebook.com/2007/07/10/facebook-rockets-
past-30-million-users/)), and may be more now. So it's probably more like a
factor of 2 or 3 now. My information was out of date, sorry.

Edit: actually, the MySpace numbers are out of date too, so if they've grown
at the same rate, MySpace should _still_ be 4x bigger.

And I agree that the future of social networking is probably something that
hasn't been invented yet. The market is maybe 5 years old, which is about the
same age as search when Google started kicking ass. My startup is actually in
the running, so I've got a vested interest in FaceBook failing, but we've got
so far to go that I don't even dare to hope...

------
kajecounterhack
I love how they put Sony's CEO up there, and now blu-ray has won the format
war...

~~~
halo
I think Ken Kutaragi even in hindsight deserved to be in the list. He's since
left Sony and made many major missteps which are likely causes to the PS3 not
being the dominant market leader.

~~~
rms
But the same move that caused the PS3 to not win the console war caused Blu-
Ray to win the format war. Which one was more important?

