Rating: 
Summary: Very interesting story
Review: A fascinating, inside look at the making of Sun Microsystems and its founder Scott McNealy. Includes insightful and entertaining interviews from many of the key high-tech players in Silicon Valley. This book is a great read; I really enjoyed it.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, just very dated
Review: After recently taking on some professional responsibility for a large Solaris farm after a long hiatus (about a decade) from Sun technology, I thought this might catch me up with the company and products. It did provide some good info, but this work is over four years old, an eternity in technology. It certainly did not reflect Sun's rapid decline in market cap and Linux debacles, both of which landed it on the front page of the WSJ a few weeks ago.I might have rated this four stars a few years ago. The only qualms are that the author should have presumed a more technical, computer-literate audience, and the audio quality was inferior (I listened to the unabridged Audible version).
Rating: 
Summary: Highly Recommended!
Review: Author Karen Southwick reveals how a few kids from Stanford University turned Sun Microsystems into a $10 billion industry powerhouse. This incredibly detailed book revisits many of the key moments in Sun's history, leading up to the recent excitement over the Java programming language. The author shows how Scott McNealy's unique personal style played an instrumental part in Sun's direction. Despite McNealy's prominence in the book, this is really a saga about Sun Microsystems and the technology economy. While she makes some effort to provide McNealy's biography, the author is clearly more interested in the strategic corporate moves Sun made to position itself for the future. We at getAbstract.com recommend this book as essential reading for anyone in the early stages of a technology start-up, and fascinating reading for anyone even slightly interested in business.
Rating: 
Summary: dissapointing
Review: For an editor of Upside and Forbes, the writing in this book is surpisingly amateurish and predictable. It jumps around a lot and doesn't really deliver anything insightful or interesting, and so I found it not worthwhile.
Rating:
Summary: dissapointing
Review: For an editor of Upside and Forbes, the writing in this book is surpisingly amateurish and predictable. It jumps around a lot and doesn't really deliver anything insightful or interesting, and so I found it not worthwhile.
Rating:
Summary: A must for High Tech job seekers
Review: High Noon provided me with the knowledge base needed to attempt a break out of the service industry and into High Tech. With the pages consistently answering questions and providing a knowledge base, the reader is able to develop the vocabulary and confidence to talk to those hiring managers. Southwick has solved the inevitable parable; "I dont know what it is I don't know." This reader is now a capable, confident, job seeker, and has "talked the talk" through two interviews at SUN Microsystems.
Rating:
Summary: A must for High Tech job seekers
Review: High Noon provided me with the knowledge base needed to attempt a break out of the service industry and into High Tech. With the pages consistently answering questions and providing a knowledge base, the reader is able to develop the vocabulary and confidence to talk to those hiring managers. Southwick has solved the inevitable parable; "I dont know what it is I don't know." This reader is now a capable, confident, job seeker, and has "talked the talk" through two interviews at SUN Microsystems.
Rating:
Summary: Read behind-the-scenes maneuverings of McNealy and Sun
Review: High Noon provides an insider's view at the business strategies of Sun Microsystems and its gutsy leader, CEO Scott McNealy. Sun Microsystems' success is due in large part to the leadership of its practical, ambitious, and forward-looking CEO. This entertaining and instructive book will appeal to managers interested in applying Sun's innovative (and often brash and unconventional) tactics to their own companies, and those intrigued by the behind-the-scenes maneuverings of McNealy and Sun. Karen Southwick of San Francisco, California has been writing about technology and Silicon Valley for more than a decade, first with San Francisco Chronicle, then Upside magazine and most recently, Forbes ASAP. She also authored Silicon Gold Rush. Reviewed by Azlan Adnan. Formerly Business Development Manager with KPMG, Azlan is currently managing partner of Azlan & Koh Knowledge and Professional Management Group, an education and management consulting practice based in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. He holds a Master's degree in International Business and Management.
Rating:
Summary: Insider¿s view of Sun Microsystems & Scott McNealy
Review: High Noon reveals the inside story of a world-class IT company. It provides an insider's view at the business strategies of Sun Microsystems and its gutsy leader, CEO Scott McNealy. Sun Microsystems (creators of the Java programming language) is now in a position to challenge high-tech's most powerful players over the future of computing. This is due in large part to its practical, ambitious, and forward-looking CEO. High Noon is a thorough case study of this successful company, from its birth as the brainchild of Indian immigrant Vinod Khosla in 1982, through its rise under McNealy's brash and unconventional methods, to its current battle with Microsoft, which will undoubtedly change the landscape of the computer industry. This entertaining and instructive book reveals the behind-the-scenes maneuverings of McNealy and Sun, with candid interviews from the key players that provide insight into the inner workings of the high-tech industry. High Noon will appeal to managers interested in applying Sun's innovative tactics to their own companies, as well as anyone intrigued by the compelling success story of this unique Silicon Valley company. Karen Southwick of San Francisco, California has been writing about technology and Silicon Valley for more than a decade, first with San Francisco Chronicle, then Upside magazine and most recently, Forbes ASAP. She also authored Silicon Gold Rush.
Rating:
Summary: Sun deserves more credit
Review: I found this book interesting, and for the most part factual, or at least consistant with my knowledge of the industry and Sun's history. I was hoping to get more biographical infomation on Scott McNealy. I felt mislead by the cover as the book doesn't really give any "inside story" of Scott McNealy. While the book does tell an interesting story on "the rise of Sun Microsystems", I think the book comes across as biased against Sun in regards to its struggles against the competition. The industry changes quickly and prehaps things have changed since this book was written. It appeared to me that the author was implying that Sun was standing still with Solaris and trying to buy time until NT overtook Solaris. It is my professional opinion that Sun is improving the Solaris operating system and the Ultra Sparc hardware at a faster rate than Microsoft is getting NT ready for prime time. I don't see Sun facing much competition from Compaq or Dell, even when and if the Merced chip arrives. The author states in the final pages of the book that Sun needs to focus on beating IBM. I have worked in a large IBM Mainframe shop for 15 years. What I see is more and more work being offloaded from the IBM mainframes to the Sun/Solaris servers. I think IBM will beat itself as far as competing with Sun goes. Their mainframes running MVS are too expensive to purchase, too expensive to operate and don't offer the variety of database and ERP software that can be found on Unix. If IBM had a decent offering in the Unix world, they wouldn't have just gone out and accuired Sequent Computer Corp.I think it is IBM who must play catch up in order to be a major player in the internet world. I think the author could have painted a more objective and less subjective view of Sun's chances for survival in the industry. All, in all, I would still recommend the book. I found it interesting, just a bit too biased toward Microsoft and IBM.
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