Ted Neward has a good essay on O'Reillynet about Sun's investment in Java's portable client-side GUI library, Swing. He thinks the battle is over, and Sun should just cut its losses:
Let's also not forget that this race is far from over. Java has had more than five years in which to build a lead against Microsoft, but that grace period is over. Any opportunities to make mistakes and not pay for it are long since gone. From here on in, it's a knife fight. Sun needs to keep their focus tight.Tom's answer? Open source it. Sun could keep funding the Swing team (and get additional free help), or they could fund more critical areas of the Java platform instead.
Sun's java strategy hasn't been effective. They could have used java as a launch pad into business app consulting, a business that does well for IBM. In fact, that business is so interesting, Microsoft and Oracle are trying to get a piece o' that. Who's got the fastest database? No one cares any more, because that market isn't growing.
Sun: OPEN SOURCE JAVA. BECOME ENTERPRISE APPLICATION CONSULTANTS. ABANDON HARDWARE.
The heydays of unix workstations are over. Linux x86 owns that space and Apple will eat whatever's left.
You know I'm right. Sun is the confused T-Rex watching the approaching comet. Time to evolve.
Partly agreed
jordan on 2002-09-12T23:47:18
I agree that Sun should push agressively into Enterprise Application Consultancy, but they should abandon neither Hardware (HW, storage) nor Software (Solaris, Linux).
IMHO, the only reason IBM has been so successful in this space is that customers feel assured that they can call in IBM and get a COMPLETE solution. HW, Software, Consultants, all in one tidy package.
Sun hasn't focussed on Unix Workstations for sometime now. They've been making servers. There's still money to be made in reliable 24x7, Enterprise class servers backed by the best software. Oh, and sell those same customers your Linux PC desktops/workstations while you are at it. People will pay extra for a workstation that's badged the same as the Server, especially if they are hiring consultants wearing the same badge. Why? Because, when something doesn't work together, they have one-stop shopping to get to a solution. That's what Enterprise customers want. They want things that just work and if they don't a real expectation that they can get it fixed. Not finger pointers and half solutions.
Now, they won't pay much extra for your PCs running Linux, but they'll pay more than enough extra to cover your overheads of fielding a reliable tested configuration (StarOffice, Gnome, latest stable Java, etc.). You don't expect to make money on PC/Workstations anyway, nobody makes very much in this space, these are break-even or even loss-leaders to get customers to buy the total package.
Java is as Open Source as it can be without allowing MS to swoop in and make Java.Net (available free with all new Windows OS packages) the new standard and marginalize Java in the Unix/Linux space.
