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Any way you slice it, it's been an interesting year for the leading systems vendors. In the last few months, Compaq has experienced tumultuous changes, including the resignation of president and CEO Eckhard Pfeiffer; Hewlett-Packard has worked to reinvigorate its business with a sharp focus on E-services; and IBM has fallen back to earth, with its astounding first- and second-quarter earnings followed by a mixed third quarter--partly because companies put off large system purchases until the Y2K issue is resolved.

Dell Computer has continued to be a hard-charging force, increasing its revenue, market share, and income, and aggressively pursuing plans to expand further into the enterprise space via new services and storage offerings.

Meanwhile, analysts continue to predict strong growth for Sun Microsystems, which leads in the Unix arena and among many dot-com companies.

Indeed, it's not only the systems vendors who have gotten religion about developing an E-business strategy. Intel has set a goal of becoming a key player in E-business hardware and services, and launched its first Internet data center this fall.

All this can add up to confusing times for IT managers planning infrastructure strategies. This special report analyzes the major commercial PC vendors--their financial health, product strategies, and the business trends that are affecting them--as well as the leading Unix vendor, Sun, and microprocessor powerhouse Intel.