6. Microsoft and Sun
Frenemies since: At least 1993, when Microsoft released Windows NT, the first version of Windows designed to compete against UNIXes such as Sun’s Solaris.
Acts of friendship: In 2004, the two companies signed a sweeping cooperation agreement that settled old lawsuits, put over a billion dollars of Microsoft money into Sun’s coffers, and involved collaboration on multiple technical fronts. Today, Sun is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner that certifies its X64 servers for use with Windows.
Acts of enmity: The two companies’ rapprochement was stunning given that for years, former Sun CEO Scott McNealy (at left in photo, making nice with Steve Ballmer) was the industry’s most high-energy Microsoft basher, calling Windows a “hairball,” .NET “.NOT,” and Outlook “Lookout.” At COMDEX 1999, he declared that the company’s free StarOffice rendered Microsoft Office obsolete, called for the breakup of Microsoft, and even hired magicians to turn a copy of Windows into a Monopoly game.
Current state of the frenemyship: You kinda wonder whether that 2004 agreement included a top-secret clause prohibiting McNealy (who stepped down in 2006) from sniping at Microsoft. If today’s kinder, gentler, smaller Sun is still stewing about the inroads Microsoft has made on its former cash cows, it keeps its discontent to itself.
(Photo of Scott McNealy and Steve Ballmer from Microsoft)
December 11th, 2008 at 6:05 am
Great list, I enjoyed that, thanks. ;-)
December 11th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Great job on this, Harry. Many of us have lived through the stuff you’ve written about here, but were we really paying attention? On some levels, yes, but we all tend to be revisionist historians to a certain degree. With this article you’ve put a stake in the ground. Would love to see you do a periodic update on the same 12 — maybe adding or deleting as new frenemies develop or others lose pertinence.
December 15th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
What about nVidia and AMD? It seems like that’s a big one.
December 17th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Great article!
December 18th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Frenemies—- are they not just competitors? OR two persons/entities that have a mutual love hate relationship that shift from one end of teh spectrum to another….
December 23rd, 2008 at 1:03 am
Wow. Microsoft has many enemies.
December 30th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Not to be a grammar policeman, but it seems you spelled “enmity” wrong.
Oh, well. Pretty awesome article. That there are six pages containing Microsoft relationships says something….
May 4th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
Wow, I immensely enjoyed this list. Microsoft leads the ranks with enemies on almost both ends of the list.
I’m missing the iFruad producers vs Apple on the list though. :P
http://kixtrix.com
May 8th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Microsoft and Nintendo! While it may not be cpu-based, nintendo helped microsoft get going with the xbox, which then completely left nintendo to branch out their own and is now nintendo’s biggest opponent (sorry sony). Not to mention how nintendo is so bitchy about making sure that nobody but themselves and add programs and games to their consoles, so there isn’t a nintendo game on the xbox and vise versa. And, Gates has famously said quote, “”There’s room for innovation (on the wii), but moving that controller around — it’s something that’s not mainstream for most games.” Who knows? Maybe Gates will give in to 114,000,000 dollars a year of motion-sensitivity and make a motion-sensitive Halo. YES.
June 15th, 2009 at 10:01 am
You forgot Google and Mozilla, google has always been a big but quiet supporter of firefox, and then they release Chrome…
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November 4th, 2009 at 10:40 am
Great article!I enjoyed that, thanks. ;-)