High Noon: The Inside Story of Scott McNealy and the Rise of Sun Microsystems

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.

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.

You could feel the fast pace of Sun in Southwick's writing. The story followed a sensible chronology, was well-written as far as layman terms and yet enjoyable for the techies, too. The good points and needs-improvements of both Sun and Scott McNealy were well presented.

The author captures well the essence of Sun's roots, the company's several mid-life crises, and its recent resurgence on the strength of its high-end server offerings and the awesome potential of the still-nascent Java. As well, the spirit of the defining character of this tale, Scott McNealy, is vividly illustrated time and again. The dictionary definition of "visionary" should have a picture of McNealy and a Sun logo attached. Sun's rise makes an inspiring story, but in this reader's opinion, the best is yet to come. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

What I really liked about this book was its objectivity about the subject. It would have been easy to just bash Microsoft and say 'Sun was King'. But this book focuses fairly on both the strengths and shortcomings of McNealy and Sun, making it a true history of a really remarkable company.It seems like the author talked to everyone who was anyone involved with Sun and the high-tech computer industry to write this. It gets deep inside the motivations of the people without resorting to the kind of salacious "star-gazing" someone like Albert Goldman, Kitty Kelly or Victor Bockris would inject into their prose. Consummately professional. The April's Fool's jokes alone are worth the price of the book!