Re: Microsoft Co-opts Java (Was CORBA COM...)

Joseph R. Kiniry (kiniry@cs.caltech.edu)
Wed, 18 Jun 1997 11:15:58 -0700 (PDT)


I. Find Karma writes:
> > Wait before we leave this topic... Biz Section Front Page San Jose Murky
> > News... M$ is releasing J/Direct which allows Java programmers to write
> > directly for the Windoze platform ONLY. This is the death of write
> > once/run anywhere!
>
> Write once/run anywhere is a myth. A marketing lie. Wait, "marketing
> lie" is a redundant phrase.
>
> It's more like write once, run nowhere. Or write once, pray everywhere.
> Or to quote Ted Lewis, write once, test everywhere.
>
> Or to paraphrase JoeK, write once, then tear my frigging hair out trying
> to run it on Windows NT.

well, it's pretty hard trying to pull out hair i don't have any.
anyway, it was more like pounding my bloodied head against the corner
of a dirty, old red brick mantel of a fireplace while having an
aneurysm, an ulcer, a stroke, and a brain hemorrhage - all at once.

> Microsoft's strategy is clear: castrate Java so that it becomes just
> another language. That's fine: it is both tactical and strategic, and
> we would not expect any less from them.
>
> It's Sun who's really dropping the ball on this one. They're going in a
> million different directions (FOUR flavors of Java!? What's up with
> that???), and I get the impression that they really have no idea of
> where they want to go today. Yes, integrating Beans with CORBA/IIOP
> would be nice, but man oh man is it a pipe dream to think that anyone
> but maybe the upper half of a percent (what's 3% of 3%?) of developers
> would have enough skill to actually use it...
>
> Java's got a long way to go as a component model. To expect that
> Microsoft would stand still at the opportunity to crush its opponents,
> would be ludicrous.
>
> ----
> adam@cs.caltech.edu
>
> An amphibian is a land animal who is almost impossible to drown.

joe