SAP chooses Sun Micro software over Microsoft-FT (Java wins one over .NET)

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[Dominic Harr]

Monday October 29, 8:44 pm Eastern Time

SAP chooses Sun Micro software over Microsoft-FT

LONDON, Oct 30 (Reuters) - SAP , Europe's biggest software group, has decided not to use Microsoft's(NasdaqNM:MSFT - news) .Net software and is instead backing a competing offering from Sun Microsystems (NasdaqNM:SUNW - news), the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.

SAP chief executive Hasso Plattner will announce next week the German group is to adopt Sun's J2EE architecture, a development platform for enterprise software based on the Java programming language, to run SAP software, people close to the talks told the newspaper.

SAP's move, if confirmed, is likely to be a blow to Microsoft, as the German group has one of the largest customer bases of any business software developer.

[Bush2000]

So 'Java' is good for developers and consumers. .NET is good for Microsoft.

Harr, spare us your one-sided crap. .NET is just as good for developers and consumers using a Microsoft platform.

[Bush2000]

As a comsumer, I would choose it.

As a consumer, you shouldn't care.

[jejones]

I expect that people will find cross-platform very nice to have indeed, now that MS has started putting the screws to its customers on upgrade contracts, threatening them with audits to essentially extort expensive upgrades out of them, and especially once they move to Danegeldware, where you have to pay in perpetuity to keep access to your own data.

[Nick Danger]

SAP isn't exactly a gold standard in software so this means about zilch except to those silly enough to budget a minimum of $25 million for a bloated MRP and accounting system.

I feel compelled to point out that SAP is a $6 billion worldwide enterprise with ten million users at 36,000 sites. That is very impressive for a piece of application software.

Anything used by ten million people will leave some of them unhappy. Painting such a thing as some sort of failing bugware is, however, totally misleading.

I do not use SAP, I do not own stock in them, and I could care less if they fold their tents tomorrow. But I do care when people come in here and spread BS among the populace disguised as expert opinion. It's obvious from the size of their user base that plenty of people think SAP has a good product that delivers value for the money.

This article paints SAP's decision as a victory for Sun. Maybe. It's a bigger victory for IBM. Watch who ends up selling the hardware.

[_Jim]

So 'Java' is good for developers and consumers. .NET is good for Microsoft.

THIS should be good ... I wonder how many graphics/processor intensive CAE tools will be developed using 'run-time interpreted' languages live Java -

- a runtime interpretated language MIGHT be fine for using as the interface agent for a human operator entering rather simple data into an interactive form - but that's a far cry from a CAD/CAE/Simulation packages where every ounce of CPU power could be used for more practical purposes than providing the horsepower to run through the interpretation every 'virtual' instruction. Even with rudimentary compilation BEFORE execution calls for some performance penalties - BUT, I guess with hardware getting as cheap as it is this isn't an issue ... (and we thought Microsoft was *solely* responsible for code bloat and forcing an appetite for ever-more powerful processors!)

[Psycho_Bunny]

You're amusing. Especially you're broad, unsupported and obviously errant assertions. Some of us do know the difference though. You should remember that when you’re screeding.

[patriot5186]

My basic contention here is that 'one language, many platforms' is a far better choice for the market.
unless of course you have a mountain of legacy code written in another language that can be mapped to the .net platform. At the recent PDC there were demos of languages like fortran, pascal, and even cobol getting mapped to .net. Not that I would necessarily want to write Cobol. I would rather just use the working Cobol code "as is" and write the new sections in one of the newer languages.

[Bush2000]

I feel compelled to point out that SAP is a $6 billion worldwide enterprise with ten million users at 36,000 sites. That is very impressive for a piece of application software.

Yeah, and so's PeopleSoft and Oracle and ... so on ...

[Bush2000]

So far last year, I donated $600 to Microsoft for software

Do you not know the difference between a donation -- and a purchase? By definition, you don't get or expect anything in return for a donation.

[Bush2000]

You'll start to see more and more of this for consumer use, as time goes on. The really *good* stuff requires some sort of 'broadband' high-speed access, so the powerful commercial applications will have to wait until enough people have high speed access. But that will come . . .

Right, Harr: Java failed on the client because broadband wasn't around to save its ass... The (dog-slow) network is the computer.

[Glenn]

But I do care when people come in here and spread BS among the populace disguised as expert opinion.

I keep my checkbook in hex and have forgotten more about application software and computing than the likes of you will ever know, sonny. I've the expert credentials and I've got plenty of time on this software. For you to accuse me of BS is, well, BS.

[jejones]

And the MS people don't think [cross-platform] programming means something?

Of course MS people think it means something--that's why they try to crush it every time it appears.

[AppyPappy]

MS is hilarious. When someone brings up Linux, MS laughs and says it isn't a serious product. But when the Justice Dept comes calling, Linux is suddenly a serious contender.

I have seen two articles lately where large shops have left Microsoft. Not because MS is bad (I LOVE Win2K) but because the future of software costs is so hazy. Our MS rep at Sara Lee told us we would pay $500 a pop for business OS's by 2005. That adds up.

I recently yanked a system from IIS and moved it to Apache. I can run Apache on Linux if needed.

[AppyPappy]

I thought you didn't purchase software. You only "leased" it.

[AppyPappy]

Here is the problem with SAP/Peoplesoft. People buy it thinking it is custom designed software. It is not. If you want custom software, write it yourself. If you want to buy an enterprise system, change your rules to suit the package, not vice-versa. ?p? I learned that companies need programmers because they can?t live with the idea of the software changing their business. It?s a lesson they all have to learn.

[Dominic Harr]

Well, a cross-platform program is one that works on Windows 9x, Windows ME, Windows NT, Windows 2K, and Windows XP, right?

Heeheehee!

Nice.

[Dominic Harr]

As a comsumer, I would choose it.

As you're seeing, the Microsoft people are actually doing the best they can to make sure as few people as possible have the *chance* to choose it.

Bush2000 worked directly for MS for years, and is now a consultant for MS products. He was trained and brainwashed by MS. He sees no consumer benefit in 'competition', and thinks the consumer shouldn't care about a competitive 'free market'.

He's a perfect example of what kind of person defends Microsoft.

And I agree with you, their 'arguments make no sense -- except for Microsoft's bottom line!