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Here's the Point ....

Here is the point ....
Many of you, on both sides are missing the true point about today's announcement.
First it has nothing todo specifically with a toolbar or OpenOffice. Second, it's

not going to bring MSFT down!
Anyone who actually writes applications know the frustrations that go along with

creating GUIs. Services, regardless of the language, tend to be, at least

superficially, straight forward and easy.
Writing rich, complicated GUIs for the web, is like taking a step back in

programming time (consider AJAX, JavaScript seems more closely related to 3 gen. lang.

than anything). Jsps/Asps are both horrible designs, because they emerged from

hodge-podge of evolving technologies and are based on the overtly outdated DOM(html)

framework.
Over a decade ago MSFT, correctly so, determined that meaningful applications would

require the robustness of 'desktop' applications(applications that had native access

to the OS) and proceeded to dominate the market by controlling the OS and

development APIs, while at the same developing the best office productivity products

yet known to man. This of course led to their 'monopoly'.
But industrial strength applications could not rely on MSFT?s Os for stability and

thus most Enterprise applications remained written for Unix/Mainframe machines. This

of course required transformation layers to be written to bridge the gap between

MSFT client side (best tools, most reliable(but req. Windows)) and the services they

represented (written in Cobol, jcp, c etc). (Most Web only programmers probably

really don't understand what any of this is about, but it's not about the web at

all, it's about applications used by Big Business, either proprietary or business

efficiency (i.e. MSOffice).
Suddenly, you have the emergence of Java and soon after Enterprise Java frameworks,

which not only allow you to run on Unix/Mainframe but Windows as well (either client

or server). Java also allowed Enterprise (and Consumer with the advent of the

Applet) programmers to write both client and server in the same language increasing

efficiency and decreasing maintainability and costs with-out giving up stability.
While the applet and Java, in some sense threatened the very nature of desktop

applications, many will remember, MSFT was all for it (even packaged 1.0 as part of

there operating system). Then the feud broke out between MSFT and Sun (part, a

really an interesting technological philosophy debate, and part MSFT trying to

maintain some control over their empire), and MSFT threw their hands up and walked

away from Java. Well, this was really a damning move to Java's evolution on the

Consumer side as it required average user the extra complexity of installing the JRE

in order to run applets or WebStart clients.
It, however had little effect on Enterprise applications, which have become(at least

new development) pre-dominantly Java, but have always been a thorn for IT

departments to deploy and maintain for their users (99% of, are using Windows OS).

So, the point of today's partnership, is less about a toolbar and more about the

possible likelihood of more and more average users being exposed to, and installing

the Java JRE. Which, in theory, brings Java back as a possible option for Consumer

products, and thus in more direct competition with MSFT?s desktop applications.
I'm not sure where AJAX fits into all this, as it seems to me a better option on the

side of interoperability than a Java client, but due to its complexity and

dependence on the archaic JavaScript lang., may be supplanted by Java for heavier

duty applications (i.e. office productivity apps).

Hope this helps!

Posted by: JonnyBlade   Posted on: 10/05/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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