Michael Kimsal wrote: > > Really? I think it shows that Sun hasn't historically been all > that concerned about the Mac. > > > Agreed - that too. They've wanted mass consumer markets handed to > them, instead of doing mass marketing. AOL managed to get software on > everyone's PCs from 1995-2003, through mailers, magazine inserts, > bundling dealings, etc. Sun sued MS for *not* including the type of > Java they wanted distributed. More accurately they sued Microsoft for including something they called Java but with 2 key portability technologies (JNI and RMI) ripped out. Microsoft was actively saying that JNI and RMI were no good and that one should simply use Windows-specific technologies instead. This was an obvious and strong Windows-lock-in strategy.
The lawsuit was damaging, but I don't think Sun had any choice. > > > It is still a niche market for clients and a very, very small > market for servers and requires a great deal of platform-specific > code to do the right things GUI-wise. Apple has been extremely > slow, but since Java 5 the results have been decent when they > finally arrive. > > Given the incremental benefit vs. incremental cost, it seems like > a no-brainer for Sun to leave this to Apple -- much as they leave > AIX to IBM, for instance (which I'd personally be more excited to > see change given the delays in JVM releases, frequent disparate > behavior with respect to Sun JVMs, lack of JVM source code, etc, > one has to deal with currently on AIX). > > > Again, if Java is key to their future, being more in control of how > and when versions shipped would seem to be paramount. Leaving these > decisions to competitors (Sun and Apple and IBM all sell hardware, > though admittedly to somewhat different markets at the moment) just > seems like *really bad business*. This is not me talking as a techie > saying "ooh - I want the latest java". It's me thinking "why would > you leave your competitors in charge of how and when people get access > to your differentiating factor?". If you have infinite resources you'd push your stuff everywhere. Given Sun's quite clearly limited resources, tiny high cost markets like OSX and AIX just have to be left to their own vendors. Apple clearly does not care all that much about any portability technologies -- they care about their own branding, eye candy, and unique value proposition. Portability is critical to real use, but it is "me too" stuff in Apple's book. For just such reasons I don't personally own a Mac, though I was a devoted user thereof for a decade or so. The Mac is what initially really inspired me to be a software developer way back in 89. It's still got cool stuff, but there's a lot of coolness out there -- and Apple's not very helpful in ensuring cross-platform coolness (e.g. Java) is all it could be on their platform. -- Jess Holle --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
