>>>I'm not so sure. I get the feeling Java will prevail with
or without MSFT on-board. They aren't supporting the SUNW
initiative now because they want to do SUNW any favors.<<<
Microsoft's motives are unclear to me, and I suspect sometimes unclear to them as well, collectively.
However, I think that it would clearly be a boon to have Microsoft get completely out of Java and shut up about it for a while, or at least be relegated to throwing rocks from left field. Being involved, they can spread FUD among their flock and in the markets too easily.
Without them, we can continue to develop the open Internet including Windows-based Java without significant interference and standards-demolishing efforts, and it will be more likely to all pan out in the end.
They can do Active-X, most people will ignore them except for corporate intranets and special applications (an admittedly big and profitable exception), and things will quiet down for a while. They might even be able to start charging for things and make their stockholders a little happier. After all, if corporate customers are writing COM and Active-X apps, wouldn't they have to pay for Internet Explorer, if Microsoft wanted the same price as Netscape for it? There's gotta be a few hundred mill in instant sales there, doesn't there? I think they could profit too, medium-term. Long term, if Java works out, they can reverse course, and port MS Office and their flight sim, etc. (Sez my chrystal ball. I should start writing one of those bogus pundit columns. ;>)
Honest efforts to constructively criticize in the Java world often get caught up (and disregarded) amidst all the anti-Microsoft sentiment. I think Sun, Netscape, et al would be far more responsive to all-Java-developer critical feedback than the noise pollution we suffer now, which has them on the defensive all the time.
So let Microsoft quit. Hooray!
Cheers,
Chaz |
