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The mouth that roared?

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An occasional commentary
by James E. Felton
August 25, 1997

At NC News we have been using Java in some form since our first day of operations. The first applet we used was extremely slow. Especially on 14.4 modems. That didn't stop it, and the related class libraries from being the most frequently copied items on our site.

To this day the only thing copied (saved) more often than the Java classes for our headlines banner is our front page. Obviously, there is something very attractive about Java in spite of the speed that an applet runs on a particular platform.

Despite it's obvious popularity, I constantly hear criticism from a wide variety of sources about the "write once, run anywhere" promise of Java. And I frequently hear it referred to as a "lowest common denominator" approach.

What I don't hear anyone saying is this:

If Java is developed as an operating system that runs as fast as Windows (or OS/2, or others) on ONE inexpensive platform (NC), and runs "at all" on all other platforms it will be vastly superior to any other single platform. At that point Java computing is only limited by two things - cost, and availability of applications.

The cost issue is easy. Who could argue that it isn't less expensive to send an e-mail than a printed letter? Who could argue that it isn't less expensive to deploy an Internet application than to package it, ship it, purchase it, and install it?

And once developers put the same amount of effort into the Java platform that they are currently putting into other platforms the "lack of applications" issue should be resolved rather quickly. After all, when you take developers from three, or more, widely used platforms and put them all behind one platform...well, you figure it out.

I had a debate a few months ago with Mike Elgan, the editor of Windows magazine. He said there is nothing an NC will ever do that a PC won't do. He said the NC will always be the low road. I disagree. I say an NC will eventually run Java much faster than a PC does. At that point I say that an NC will become much more desirable than a PC for most purposes.

So, let the nay-sayers say what they want about Java, and NCs. I say that any developer who isn't learning Java may soon find himself obsolete. And any computer manufacturer who doesn't plan to build NCs may find itself bankrupt.

Time will tell!

Have an opinion you'd like to share?

Send it to me!

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