Sun, Apples and Novell oh my....

Well a lot has transpired in teh recent months. Microsoft embraces Mozilla, rumors abound that Sun could be an acqussition target for Apple and Novell releases some really good stuff. The world must be ending right? Well I don't see Sun as really being taken by Appple, 2 different cultures, 2 different visions. Apple should be the target of Sun if that one were to ever occur. Sun still leads in innovation as far as I can see. They release products that work unlike the Apple portable laptop/hotplates with Intel processors. What a stupid move on Apples part to go with a power hungry crappy chip just to be popular. If it weren't for the iPod Apple wouldn't even exist today. Novell has released som every interesting stuff in Suse Linux recently. How does that distro just keep gaining ground? It is a real contender to Redhat. I am pleased that Redhat has gone forward to make a live CD that way people can at least expereince it before moving to something better like Linspire, Xandros or Mandriva. Speaking of Mandriva they are becoming incresingly more renoun as well. Hearing more and more about them in Linux circles. Unbuntu (or however you spell it) seems to be losing traction as far as I can see. Hearing about it less an dits staunch attiude to be completely free of propritary code will crush any chance of it gaining popularity and delay release cycles enough that it will fade into non-existence. Sorry folks as great as open source is it still has to have some propritary umph t take on the Redmond behemoth. What is amazing is the differnce in the amount of time it has taken Linux and Windows to evolve. Linux has made inroads further and faster than Windows ever has in a much shorter amount of time. On a side note though without a full scale Java based applications assulat it will not make inroads against Windows. There still is a gap that exists because there is no great software that exists that is portable across multiple platforms. Intuit refuses to recognize the value of Linux and therefore ignores it. The accounting software and project managemetn software for Linux are simply pathetic. The OpenOffice,org suite is great for a general user and it works on many platforms but still lacks the advanced features of MS and therefore is still shunned. The reason a business will not leave the teat of Microsoft is simple, there are too many gaps still to get alla the daily tasks done without having to use valueable time to accomplish those tasks. Time is money is never more evident than it is in today's fast paced business world. If someone took the time to build great Java based apps that did anything and everything MS stuff does then they would make money from the Apple user, Solaris user, Linux user and Windows user as long as it was priced competative. When researching apps for Linux that were specifically written for Linux some were so cost prohibative it made no sense to use them. With Java the audience is bigger, more people to sell to, translates into cheaper prices to reach the break even point. (costs=revenues to non-business folk). We stand at the edge of what could be however no one will take the leap to achieve greatness.