Re: IBM doesn't like the GPL

[Thufir]

On Mar 19, 11:32 am, "amicus_curious" <A...@sti.net> wrote:
> "Alexander Terekhov" <terek...@web.de> wrote in message
>
> 49C257E3.DAF22F81@web.de">news:49C257E3.DAF22F81@web.de...
>
>
>
> > And how did that help SUN?
>
> The intent was to get the world's application developers creating all of
> their work in java so that it could be "written once and run everywhere" in
> an attempt to break the Microsoft grasp on the computer software market by
> making Windows unnecessary.  McNealy reasoned that by killing Microsoft's
> cash cow, Gates would be unable to continue the battle for workstations and
> department level servers.  Java became very popular for system integrators
> in designing client/server applications and might have someday done what
> McNealy intended, but he had a poor sense of timing.
>
> The only real choice for client hardware at the time was the ubiquitous
> Wintel PC, which did run a java environment just fine and so the standard
> became a TCP/IP capable server, brand not important, working with a bunch of
> Windows PCs, brand not important.  All that did was to encourage big
> companies to buy even more Windows based PCs which could now do additional
> useful things.  McNealy was planning to provide a so-called "thin client"
> that would run the java applications, but he never got that out of the
> chute, so the whole thing backfired.
>
> Microsoft, meanwhile, managed to thoroughly muddy the water by adding a lot
> of their own interface cream and sugar to the original java black and then
> managed to even create a sort of multi-flavor latte in the form of .NET.  In
> a sense, this out-did the original java, termed J++ in newspeak, and today
> has totally blunted the original killing thrust attempt.
>
> At the end of the day, Sun had spent a fortune developing and promoting
> java, creating a large opportunity for which it had no product to sell into.
> And the COLA folk like to snicker at Bill Gates' leading with his chin!
>
> It could be said that the plan would work with Linux based clients today and
> there has been a little movement in that direction, but the real irony is
> that the company most damaged by the arrival of Linux has been Sun.


Well, I'm shocked at the sanity of this post.


-Thufir