Allen, as usual your post was very informative. I would expand on your excerpt below as follows;
1.Both Lotus and Corel are rewriting their office suites in Java as fast as they can. I suspect Microsoft is doing the same. This will give NC users the spreadsheet and word processor tools they need. There are already several e-mail options available. Netscape is/will be available to execute in Java. Again I think Microsoft will follow suit with Explorer.
2. SUN is clearly out in the cold on support of legacy applications. They are JAVA only. It is strange to think of Netscape as a legacy app, but at this point it is in terms of JAVA. I believe NCI will support X-windows apps, meaning you can execute windows apps on an NC.
>>There are two fundamental problems which will limit NC usefulness for a couple of
years:
(1) There aren't many serious Java applications available for prime time, e.g. word
processing and spreadsheets.
(2) All that legacy code in organizations cannot, or will not, be converted anytime
soon to Java. NCs need to be able to execute that code before they can be serious
replacements for PCs. Until then, NCs can only complement PCs.>>
Another nit is that JavaOS will NOT reside on each NC client, Java the language will. There is lots of confusion about things JAVA. There is JAVA the language that everyone loves. There is JavaOS, the operating system which has not caught on much at all with developers. Then there are Java Chips. This is SUN's attempt to supply the complete solution from processor to OS to language, and replace the WinTel Duopoly. Good luck to them.
I would encourage people to take a look at the NC home page for more details. See nc.com for answers to lots of basic questions. Two interesting points I found there are;
1. The NCI OS can be stored locally on ROM or on the server. This is important for fast booting and for disconnected, standalone use.
2. NC Access includes NC Connect which enables users to run and execute Windows applications and access Windows documents. For example, NC users could access, create, or edit a WORD document.
I agree NC's will be big and that WIND has a chance to get a piece of the business.
Don |
