This speaks for itself:
A Nielsen/NetRatings survey of 36,000 Internet users found that Web surfers who download music from song-swapping sites are more likely to buy music online and in stores, than non-swappers. The research indicates that in the past three months, online music enthusiasts (defined as people who'd downloaded music in the past 30 days) were 111% more likely to buy rap music than the average Internet user. They were also 106% more likely to have purchased dance and club music and 77% more likely to have bought alternative rock than their average online counterparts. R&B, soul music and rock rounded out the top five genres favored by music fans. Greg Bloom, a senior analyst at Nielsen/NetRatings, says that understanding the preferences of online music enthusiasts may help recording executives in their attempts to promote their own, legitimate services: "The de facto standard may be a few years away, but understanding the genres of music that sell well online and offline will be crucial to generating revenue along the way."
Heh.
Are you acting stupid on purpose? Maybe to lure your competitors (you know, the ones kicking your ass in the growing Linux market) into a false sense of security?
No, wait. That can't be it. Because the words you speak do a good job of matching what Sun's actually doing about Linux: not much.
In this article, I'm particularly amused by a few quotes.
"We think the big winner with Linux will be on the desktop," said Scott McNealy during a Q&A session at Forrester Research's technology and finance conference here.
Heh, okay. Do you care to explain how that's going to happen and how Sun will be taking advantage of it?
"The real challenge for Sun," he conceded, is that it was "late to x86," referring to Sun's decision last year to support Intel's x86 processor architecture with its non-SPARC processor platforms.
Yeah, right. That's your problem. Missing the x86 boat. Whatever.
Why don't you just tell people what they already know instead of shifting the focus away from your company's obvious problems? You underestimated Linux and Linux on x86. You bought a company with expertise in that area but it doesn't appear to have been given a chance to flourish as part of Sun. Sure, the LX50 is great, but it's an isolated product that was far, far too late to market.
Sun customers are all looking at Linux as a replacement for Solaris. What are you doing to help that process? Telling them "yes, you can run Linux software on Solaris!" Somehow, I don't think that's what they had in mind. It's shame that they're going to non-Sun companies for the help, isn't it?
And when are you going to wrap your brain around how important Linux is to one of Sun's more important technologies? You know, the Java programming language?