What Would The Web Be Without Java? zdnet.com
Meanwhile, back on my other favorite subject, ilk sister Mary Jo Foley thinks that maybe Microsoft is retreating on the war on Java, if not giving up the field entirely. Of course, the great Java purge at www.microsoft.com was a pretty big hint on this, but there's other evidence.
Would the Web without Java be like Bill Gates without Steve Ballmer-still whizzy on the inside, but kind of bland on the outside? Not so, according to Microsoft.
Within the past few months, Microsoft has come full circle and has relegated Java to the status of JAPL, Just Another Programming Language. Now it's gone that position one better. Java has become totally unnecessary for Web administration, development and commerce, in Microsoft's humble opinion.
You want evidence? Check out Microsoft's upcoming Web Tech Ed event, which the company, in typical Microsoft fashion, is modestly billing as "The Definitive Web Developer Conference." The four-day confab, to be held in Palm Springs at the end of this month, will be packed with sessions tailored for 3,500 web developers, designers, administrators and resellers. But if you're to trust the most recently updated conference Web-site information, not one of those sessions will cover Java, not even Microsoft's own Visual J++, JScript or Java Virtual Machine offerings.
A Web conference that doesn't mention Java? You've got to admit it's a unique marketing idea (and is probably more than slightly influenced by Microsoft's legal tanglings with Sun, regarding what makes Java "Java."). Instead, you'll hear about ActiveX, Dynamic HTML and XML, the Extensible Markup Language. Microsoft also will dedicate time to showcase two of its Internet platforms: Site Server 3.0 and Microsoft Commercial Internet System (MCIS) 2.0.
Ah, good old ActiveX, open as always no doubt. Aside from that, this seems perfectly sensible to me. As long time readers know, my view was always that the war on Java was a tough one for Microsoft to win, since what developers most wanted from Java was what Microsoft least wanted to give them- independence from Windows. To repeat again, from his point of view Bill was absolutely right in that notorious "Has anybody f***ing heard of Windows" blowup, but most of the Java machinery is baggage in a Windows only world. Despite the echoes of the "Microsoft Java is best" heard from time to time here. And, for that matter, in Windows World ActiveX makes perfect sense, more sense that the Microsoft "Embraced and Demolished" portable code/native API Java model did.
So, looks like Microsoft took my advise and is going to leave Java alone:-). (Really, I got no illusions that anybody important pays any attention to me. I'm just some guy.) Now it's up to Sun and the rest of the NOISE guys to deliver. I don't expect them to displace Windows anytime soon, never have, but I think Java's got a place, and can coexist. As with everything else, we'll see.
Cheers, Dan. |
