Sun, Microsoft Battle For TCI Business zdnet.com
Here's some confirmation, but it sorta looks like Bill's still hanging in there.
Tele-Communications Inc. has signed a "definitive" agreement to make Sun Microsystems Inc.'s PersonalJava the application development environment that it will deliver on between 6.5 million and 10 million TCI set-top boxes delivered over the next three years.
But, the underwear is still up for grabs:
TCI said the terms of the deal would allow the cable giant to include the operating system and processor of its choice in the set-top boxes, which TCI is codeveloping with General Instruments Inc. Among the operating systems that TCI is considering for these boxes are Microsoft Corp.'s Windows CE, Sun's own Embedded Java and/or JavaOS and other real-time products from a plethora of vendors, TCI officials said.
"We have not yet settled on a single chip or operating system. We might have more than one," noted Bruce Ravenel, President and CEO of TCI.NET and Senior Vice President of TCI. "That's why it's important for us to have PersonalJava" running across all these operating systems and devices.
Ravenel said he expected PersonalJava to be able to run on Windows CE, whether or not it is a "Pure Java" environment. He stressed that he does not expect the current lawsuit between Sun and Microsoft over the proper licensing procedures for Java to effect TCI's set-top box software decisions.
Or, maybe they'll run Personal Java on NT, so you can have a bloated middleware OS on top of a bloated middleware OS. At the rate PC hardware prices are dropping, and the rate TCI has been deploying the fiber backbone, it could happen!
Cheers, Dan. |
