> "The downgrade kit will wipe out everything Microsoft except DOS and
> rebuild the system on open Java standards."
If it just did the wiping, without the rebuilding, they'd have to call
it "Java NT." :)
> McNealy touted Java as the answer to user simplicity, comparing
> Java-based applications to a telephone and Windows to "installing your
> own telephone switching network."
Looks like the telephone-switching-analogy shot heard round the world.
> "We have been bludgeoned to death with the idea that our kids need
> to know how to work a Microsoft computer," McNealy said. "Do you want
> your kids to know how to install and operate a telephone switch?
Again with the telephone analogy!
> "Microsoft has a great strategy and it works; Bill doesn't have a 30-car
> garage for no reason," McNealy said of Microsoft chairman and CEO Gates.
McNealy sure does say some weird things.
> While McNealy is clearly bullish on Java, a recent study by IDC found
> that less than 10 percent of companies worldwide are deploying Java
> applications today. (See our news story "The honeymoon's over -- so
> what's next for Java?".)
It's amazing how much of Java is pure hype. Downright scary, actually.
Honeymoon's over paper is at:
http://www.sun.com/sunworldonline/swol-03-1997/swol-03-java.html
It claims that Java will supplant HTML as a language for Web clients.
I think Sun has overkill in their optimism department.
> "That 10 percent of companies are using Java applications within its
> first 600 days of existence is phenomenal," McNealy said. Six hundred
> days ago Java had no class libraries, no tools, and no virtual machines,
> he said.
Right. And now they just have unstable class libraries, no usable
tools, and a mammoth virtual machine that crashes whenever it pleases.
Here's to the next 600 days of existence! (Me bitter about Java?
Never! :)
> McNealy predicts that 100 percent of companies will be deploying Java
> applications within the next two years and more programmers will be
> developing in Java than for Windows.
He obviously needs a heavy dosage of the reality pill.
:) Adam
-------- 8< snip here -----------------------------------------------
Hanover, Germany (03/13/97) -- Scott McNealy, president and CEO of Sun
Microsystems Inc., landed his usual anti-Microsoft Corp. punches in a
speech here today and urged PC users to ditch Windows for a Java-based
approach.
Later this year, Sun will release a "downgrade kit" for Windows PCs
which will include a Java virtual machine and a set of office
applications written in Java, McNealy said at CeBIT. "The downgrade kit
will wipe out everything Microsoft except DOS and rebuild the system on
open Java standards."
The kit will cost approximately $99 and will be downloadable from the
Internet, McNealy said.
McNealy touted Java as the answer to user simplicity, comparing
Java-based applications to a telephone and Windows to "installing your
own telephone switching network."
Microsoft succeeded by getting parents to believe that children need to
know how to operate a Windows PC in order to get ahead in life, McNealy
said. "We have been bludgeoned to death with the idea that our kids need
to know how to work a Microsoft computer," McNealy said. "Do you want
your kids to know how to install and operate a telephone switch?
"Microsoft has a great strategy and it works; Bill doesn't have a 30-car
garage for no reason," McNealy said of Microsoft chairman and CEO Gates.
While Sun doesn't agree with Microsoft's "proprietary" approach, both
companies' strategies will co-exist in the future, he said.
"The world is going to have both architectures, Java and Windows," he said. "Users who have enormous amounts
of time will choose Windows and users who want ease-of-use will choose Java."
McNealy said that users shouldn't have to know how to operate computers
and that Java-based applications will make information devices, NCs,
set-top boxes and computers easy to use. In addition, he said that Java
can "scale up to a mainframe and down to a smart card."
"No matter how much Microsoft squeezes the NetPC, they won't get it on a
smart card," McNealy said.
While McNealy is clearly bullish on Java, a recent study by IDC found
that less than 10 percent of companies worldwide are deploying Java
applications today. (See our news story "The honeymoon's over -- so
what's next for Java?".)
"That 10 percent of companies are using Java applications within its
first 600 days of existence is phenomenal," McNealy said. Six hundred
days ago Java had no class libraries, no tools, and no virtual machines,
he said.
McNealy predicts that 100 percent of companies will be deploying Java
applications within the next two years and more programmers will be
developing in Java than for Windows.
Sun didn't predict that Java, an "accidental empire," would catch on so
quickly, McNealy said. "We got lucky with Java."
--Kristi Essick, IDG News Service, London Bureau
----
adam@cs.caltech.edu
> * Coffee prices fell yesterday as concerns over tight
> supplies eased.
> - ended down 17.70 cents a pound at 168.65 cents
-- Daily Brief, 3/18/97. YES!!! Cheaper Java, Cheaper Java!!!