I'm not sure it matters if Sun buys Apple. Jobs probably ends up taking NeXT in the direction he took Apple upon return.
Steve Jobs is the key to a lot of stuff and the revolution in personal and consumer computing in the 2000's. I don't think it matters what company he does that under.
Sun was professional, Jobs was consumer. Jobs needed to be top dog and in charge of concept, and he couldn't have done that at Sun. He also needed some constraints and consumer focus, which Apple provided.
NeXT was basically a vanity project. It was poorly run from a business POV, but developed some decent tech. The real primary motivation wasn't to make money, it was to keep some attention on Jobs and maintain his profile as an Important Innovative Person.
Sun was engineering-led not image-led and wedded to workstation/server. That market turned out to be a relatively short-lived spasm - a legacy of the mini market pioneered by DEC - in a much longer consumer-oriented tech history.
So there was an impossible tension there.
It might have worked if Apple had remained a completely independent division and Jobs had been given a free hand to run it. But that was never really remotely likely.
It might also have worked if Jobs had any interest in the server/business market. But he really didn't - possibly because it was "boring" and not mass market, which meant less attention and praise for him.
I forget his exact words :-)
NeXT was a pure software company and not a successful one either. The idea that they could start doing things like iPod is pretty out there.
The iconic NeXT cube (and NeXTStations) would disagree with you there.
Its actually kind of crazy how high NEXT got valued.
Despite not being successful, they were well known for their hardware.
The Cube where it was originally developed, was lying on a corner on his office as no one believed it had any future left.
The iPod had some software involvement, but was almost entirely a hardware play. It used an unusually capable small hard drive that Apple bought all of and in the early versions made use of Firewire for ease of use and quick transfers. All of the software for controlling it was contracted out to a company outside Apple that specialized in embedded applications which are really different from applications on home computers or workstations.
When I visit any of my 3 kids on their respect campuses. I see the same. Some times even stronger.
I spent time in Boston 2 weeks ago and rode the tubes a lot. I saw a LOT of MacBooks. Way more than all other laptops combined.
I don’t even like apple but you are so incredibly wrong it’s laughable. This might have been true 20 years ago but dude. Apple is huge and it’s personal computing is huge too.
They did make the most of it, and they are definitely the show-off market leader (when you want to show off your laptop, that's what you get ;).
My company recently got me a MacBook Pro 14, and while it's fast, I don't enjoy using it for the same reasons I hated my old XPS13: I hate the keyboard and glossiness of the screen (and sharp edges too). I am a Thinkpad X1 guy, those are machines I happily go back to.