"We have no intention of shipping another bloated OS and shoving it down
the throats of our users," Maritz said regarding the concept of delivering
JFCs on top of the Windows operating system.
Now, if we could just get MS to stop doing it the first time... :-)
Rohit
===========================================
Microsoft downplays Java's cross-platform features
By Cara Cunningham
InfoWorld Electric
Posted at 6:32 AM PT, Jul 24, 1997
SEATTLE -- A Microsoft executive here Wednesday made a firm statement
regarding the company's stance on Sun Microsystems' Java: While the
technology is fine as a programming language, it's no cross-platform Nirvana.
During Microsoft's Windows Platform briefing here, group vice president of
platforms and applications Paul Maritz attempted to clarify Microsoft's
Java licensing agreement with Sun, and also pulled no punches in describing
what Microsoft believes to be the language's limitations.
Maritz apparently spoke in reaction to Sun officials' recent claims that
Microsoft is bound by its Java license to ship Sun subsidiary JavaSoft's
Java Foundation Class (JFC) libraries, claiming that the software giant is
under no such commitment. Microsoft delivers its own set of libraries,
called Application Foundation Classes, that work with Java, a Microsoft
official said.
"Java is a good evolution of C++, it keeps a lot of the good and gets rid
of the bad," Maritz said. "However, Sun is trying to associate with Java a
set of libraries written in Java and put [them] forward as a solution for
programs to run on all the world's operating systems."
The cross-platform promise that Sun is making with Java is not a new
concept in the computer industry, Maritz said, as a number of companies
have attempted to achieve this "write once run anywhere" goal by delivering
a set of libraries with applications that compensate for differences in
underlying operating systems. The problem with this approach, according to
the Microsoft executive, is that in order for Java applications to be
useful, the JFCs must grow in size and function to that of a full-fledged
operating system, at which point it would make sense to simply write the
applications to established OSes.
"We have no intention of shipping another bloated OS and shoving it down
the throats of our users," Maritz said regarding the concept of delivering
JFCs on top of the Windows operating system.
To further drive home his point that running JFCs on top of Windows is
futile, Maritz said that developers would lack an understanding of the
market to avoid including in their Java applications calls directly to the
Windows operating system.
"If an operating system adds a new feature, and [the OS] has a large market
share, then it is economically crazy not to take advantage of that," he
said. "Look at a lot of the Java applications out there; they are 100%
impure Java because they have to take advantage of the operating system."
Microsoft's investments in Java going forward will be centered on
integrating Java components with those written in other languages and in
technologies such as J/Direct, which gives Java developers direct access to
Windows functions.
--- Rohit Khare /// MCI Internet Architecture (BOS) /// khare@mci.net Voice+Pager: (617) 960-5131 VNet: 370-5131 Fax: (617) 960-1009