The planet will not have to go to one lousy place [Microsoft] for desktop operating systems and productivity tools.
Predictor: McNealy, Scott
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 article for The Financial Times, Louis Kehoe interviews Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy. Kehoe writes:”If Scott McNealy has his way, Microsoft’s dominance of the market for desktop-computer software could be short lived. Free software, distributed over the Internet, will soon displace packaged application programs sold in computer stores, he predicts … McNealy looks forward to the day when PC users linked to the Internet will simply click on a highlighted word to download the program needed for a specific task and discard it when they are finished. He believes this new model of software distribution could undermine today’s software market leaders and create wider choice for computer users … As McNealy puts it, ‘The planet will not have to go to one lousy place [Microsoft] for desktop operating systems and productivity tools.'”
Biography:Scott McNealy was the CEO and cofounder of Sun Microsystems, Inc., a leading global supplier of network computing solutions, including Java, in the 1990s. (Entrepreneur/Business Leader.)
Date of prediction: July 17, 1995
Topic of prediction: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Financial Times (London)
Title, headline, chapter name: OK, Let’s Re-engineer the Planet: This is the Aim of Java, Sun’s New Programming Language…and if it Makes Life Difficult for Bill Gates, Scott McNealy Really Will be Happy
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?_m=9dc1df09293c6306d64046d9a6356f9c&_docnum=2&wchp=dGLbVzb-lSlzV&_md5=4293507f6d19ee3c6abda8096903e52b
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Meyer, Jennifer