Mindshare and Java

[Timothy C. May]

At 1:45 AM 4/26/96, Blake Coverett wrote:

>> Still, integrating Java and Internet browsing into the OS does not bode
>> well for Netscape.
>
><CRYSTALBALL>
>My bet is that five years from now Netscape will be remembered as the
>company that forced MS to give it away for free.
></CRYSTALBALL>
>
>-Blake (who's keeping all his irons in the fire anyway :-)

I tend to agree with Blake on this, as one might expect. Speaking as a
longterm Mac user, I certainly feel no compulsion to drop my Mac/Netscape
package and switch to Microsoft.

Bundling Java in with Windows (which actually was reported as long ago as
last Friday, on C/NET's page, http://www.cnet.com/) may be a near-necessity
for Microsoft, and for other OS vendors.

Apple is also reported to be planning to make its next OS major release,
"Copeland," an "Internet-savvy" release. Its "CyberDog" (dumb name) will be
bundled with Java as part of Copeland. Metrowerks (the Code Warrior people)
is said to be a partner in this.

Symantec's "Cafe" JIT compiler for Java is reported to have a 13x speedup
over JDK code, and is only slightly slower than compiled C code.

Borland is also working on JIT stuff, reportedly for Sun itself.

How it all shakes out remains unclear, but I stand by my "mindshare" point
of view, that Java is fast-becoming a lingua franca for Web-centric use. (C
certainly was, in a different sense, not for cross-platform easy use.)

I'll bet, however, that Microsoft will not be "winner-take-all" in this.
They're doing some impressively nimble rearrangements of plans, but there
is little indication they'll be able to dominate things.

--Tim May

Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software!
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