Mike,
Get aload of this article on Java:
techweb.com
"We don't carry our computers around with us at Sun
anymore," McNealy told 12,000 developers and VARs at the
recent JavaOne conference. "We carry our Enigma cards, our
authentication token card, and then we just borrow whatever
computer is available. . . . We travel around the world, and we
just carry this card."
McNealy and other Sun employees are using the Enigma cards
in a Java network environment in an attempt to prove a point:
The thin-pipe Java computing solution is more cost-effective
and more efficient than Windows-based client/server
solutions.
There is no reason, when I am on the road, [that] I need a
4,000-feature word processor," said McNealy. "I don't know
what to do with a 40-feature word processor. So you can
download a word processing applet or a mail applet or a
calendar applet and let people get their jobs done . . .
on the road no matter where they are."
Saab, for example, is installing Java-based software to help 225
dealerships in the United States integrate information about car service, ownership, finance, warranties and other topics.
Home Depot Inc. is using a pen-based mobile Java device that
allows store managers to walk down store aisles and instantly
get realtime updates from headquarters on inventory and
merchandise. And Sony Corp. is using Java technology on its
heavily hit Web site to do customer profiling.
"I don't know why we need the kinds of desktops that we have,
and what we're proving inside our company is that we can be as
productive, if not more productive, with thin clients and NCs,"
Zander said. "It's cutting our capital costs and cutting our
development costs."
"It's one application for 25,000," said Zander, urging VARs to
contrast that with Windows, where a company would have to
roll out 25,000 copies of Windows and 25,000 applications.
"We load them down into proxy servers, but the application
gets written once, modified once, and then published to the
network where I use it. |
