Improving Java for Linux

[Michael Thomas]

Ian Brown writes:
 > John D. Gwinner wrote:
 > > On what?  If ISO standardizes on a language that is wholly owned and
 > > controlled by Sun/JavaSoft (whoever) then I've got big problems with that.
 > >
 > 
 > Why? Do you run MS Windows? If so, do you have a problem with the fact that
 > MS wholly owns and controls it?

   God, yes.

 > Yes, this is more of an issue. If Sun doesn't follow the standard from ISO,
 > that might worry me. However, it is likely that ISO will end up standardizing
 > on something defined by Sun.

   Even though there is a tremendous amount to be
wary of McNeely and Co, Sun has for the most part
been playing on the up and up wrt trying to
preserve the cross platform aspect of Java. This
is most decidedly in their interest and it is
most decidedly antithetical to M$'s interest.
   I think that the worst fear is that McNeely in
his zeal to screw Chairman Bill will miscalculate
his actual position and end up getting
steamrolled. Java is still in a vary tenuous
position wrt fragmented API's. IMO, it is where
the battle will be won and lost. If M$ manages to
even just a little bit work in their proprietary
API's, they will use that as a $10 billion wedge
to pry Sun -- and portability -- away from Java.
   Frankly, I think there is a lot less to worry
about Sun the Monopolist. The specs for the VM are
published, as well as the API. Besides, it's my
gut level feeling that McNeely, even if he has
aspirations of control like Chairman Bill does,
he'd be incompetent to pull it off. The true
danger is that he will either try that route, or
that M$ will manage to paint him as such (which
it's desparately trying to do these days), fueling
FUD which is to M$'s advantage.
   IMO, Sun for all their zillions of faults is
the only thing separating us from total domination
by M$. Netscape has failed in that role, IMO,
because of the overall realization that there is
nothing intrinsic about the Java VM which requires
an attached web bloat^H^H^H^Hrowser.

Michael Thomas	(mike at mtcc.com http://www.mtcc.com/~mike/)
        "I dunno, that's an awful lot of money."
			Beavis