IBM Acknowledges Java As An Anti-Microsoft Ballistic Missile
SPECIAL REPORT: JAVA WARS ON THE HORIZON
08/06/97
Report on IBM
(COPYRIGHT 1997 DataTrends Publications, Inc.)
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IBM Acknowledges Java As An Anti-Microsoft Ballistic Missile As if the whole question of Internet standards and
protocols isn't already confused enough, now users and developers have to contend with wildly divergent interpretations of what the Java
programming language is -- or can be in the future.
Microsoft, guarding the Windows franchise, views Java
strictly as a programming language.
Sun Microsystems and IBM view Java not only as a
programming language, but also as a platform in and of itself --
and a weapon that the two companies can wield in their fight to break the Windows/ Intel strangle hold.
David Gee, program director for Java marketing (and
affectionately known within IBM as chief evangelist for Java ), told
us candidly that IBM "absolutely, definitely" views its involvement
with Java as a competitive move against Microsoft.
" Java is a platform of the 21st century -- Windows
32 and 16 are the legacy platforms of the 20th century," Gee said. "
Java levels the playing field and ties together different systems and allows customers to develop and roll out applications across platforms that adhere to open industry standards."
Platform, Language Or Both?
IBM views Java as both a platform and a language, Gee
said. "Redmond [i.e. Microsoft] only views Java as a language," he
said. "IBM is more focused on the server side of Java ."
IBM's view of Java is not limited to IBM operating
systems. "Users can write Java applications that run on Windows, OS/2, and AIX," Gee said. "IBM is supportive of Java everywhere."
Microsoft, on the other hand, is not supportive of
Java everywhere. "Microsoft is terrified of Java and is doing
everything in its power to maintain its vice-like grip on the desktop," he said. " Java is the single largest threat to Microsoft because it gives customers a choice to write applications without being subservient to the whims of Microsoft. Customers want open standards and open platforms; Microsoft doesn't want either."
So what if IBM and Sun are successful in positioning
Java as an alternative to Microsoft operating systems? Wouldn't
that, in a way, threaten the concept of Java as an industrywide,
cross- platform development language?
Brett Boston, president of Group Solutions (Atlanta,
Ga.), said it would make sense that IBM and Sun would try to position
Java as a Windows alternative, especially in light of Microsoft's
recent alignment with Hewlett-Packard. "In some senses, Sun must feel
forced to go with IBM."
Michael Gartenburg, research director with the
Gartner Group (Stamford, Conn.), said the IBM/Sun alliance is in the category of VAM (Vendors Against Microsoft) partnerships, adding that these are never a good idea.
"If you marry someone, you should marry that person
because you love them, not because you share a common enemy," he said. "And these companies and their CEOs aren't opposed to one person or one company [Bill Gates, Microsoft] running the computer
industry, they're just sorry it isn't them."
Bad Idea
Java as an alternative to Microsoft operating systems
is a bad idea and would ultimately hurt the whole notion of Java ,
Boston said.
"Sun and IBM could potentially pull Java over and
make it a proprietary operating system," he said. "The fallout is that consumers would be forced into choosing between Java and Microsoft and that would mean a choice between an IBM or Sun server and an Intel /Microsoft server."
Gartenburg agreed and pointed out that the idea that
Java is a platform takes a leap of faith.
"In order for Java to be a platform, you must have
Java chips and Java apps, a hard drive, and a chip set," he said. "That's basically a Java operating systems on a non- Intel , non-Microsoft PC."
If IBM and Sun are successful in building a
non-Wintel PC, then Java is no longer "write once, run anywhere," Gartenburg said.
"If Sun and IBM announce that they have optimized
their systems to take full advantage of Java , they're saying: this is
where it's designed to work," he said. "They could then point to a Wintel server and say: this is where it's not designed to work."
Java Is Slow
Rather than a platform, Gartenburg said Java is
really an interpreted programming language. "No one likes to call it that because interpreters have the reputation of being slow," he said. "But Java is slow -- performance is a big problem. It's true that it has the benefit of write once, run anywhere; but the penalty of this is performance."
Java is not suited to everything because performance and functionality are lacking, Gartenburg said.
Gartenburg doubted Microsoft executives were very worried about Java
.
"Microsoft likes Java and has offered some tools for
developers to create Java applications that only run in Windows
environments," he said.
In addition, Gartenburg questioned IBM's and Sun's
commitment to 100 percent pure Java . "100 percent pure Java isn't so
pure -- this only means that Java is optimized to deal with it as Sun
wants it dealt with," he said. |
