I don't see INTC releasing control of the X86 architecture, nor MSFT releasing control of Windows, so why in the world would Sun release control of JAVA? The letter seems to me to be one or more of the following:
1) an act of desperation, as they realize the jig is up. IMHO, this may have a lot to do with Merced, which may be less compatible with X86 than people are expecting (pure speculation on my part, but remember what compatibility meant when Intel went from the 8080 to the 8086?). If everything will need to be recompiled (or maybe even recoded) to work effectively on Merced, cross-platform may suddenly become the mantra du jour (more so than it is already);
2) groundwork for a PR/marketing campaign, yet to unfold (perhaps along the lines of "look, despite what they say, they're no better than us;"
3) a major screwup on their part (someone wrote it as a trial balloon and it took on a life of its own which eventually led to release);
Whatever else, it is certainly the most direct admission I've seen by MSFT that JAVA is the future. What happened to the "It's just another language" idea?
JMHO, as always. |
