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December 1-15, 1998 MASTERFILE |
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Java Blow Hot Grow Cool Java language is gaining steam in the marketplace, moving from beyond just animating Web pages to being used in heavy-duty business programs. Will it be able to make cross-platform computing convenient? By Atanu Roy
It wasn't the preface of Bill Joy, Sun Microsystems' technology chief's article on Java's role in future computing. Neither was it part of IBM chairman Louis Gerstner's speech. The vision comes from Rick Rashid and six other principal scientists in Microsoft Corp., in an article titled, "Operating System Directions in the Next Millennium". For the rest of the world, however, a tool for such cross-platform computing is already gaining momentum: Java. Originally known as a way to jazz up Web pages with graphic animations--stock tickers that crawl across your screen, for example, and dancing icons--Java has quickly evolved into a computing platform--a sturdy base upon which programmers can build software applications. We're not just talking word processors and spreadsheets here, but also applications to handle sales, customer service, accounting, databases, and human resources--the meat and potatoes of corporate computing.
The way Java works is simple. Unlike ordinary software applications, which take up megabytes on the hard disk of your PC, Java applications, or "applets," are little programs that reside on the network in centralised servers. The network delivers them to your machine only when you need them; because the applets are so much smaller than conventional programs, they don't take forever to download. The near future promises much more: Internet screen phones that use Java technology will be available soon. Also this month, smart cards using the Java Card platform will begin shipping in huge quantities. And in 1999, the Java platform is expected to begin appearing in bedrooms and living rooms on high-end TV set-top boxes built by TCI, world's largest telecom company. Stealing the Show
For example, Java software running on servers in large companies monitors transactions and ties together data from existing computer systems. Other companies are using Java software on their internal Web sites to streamline communication and the flow of information between departments, suppliers and customers. Enterprises like Home Depot, Xerox, CSX, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Kaiser Permanente and Xerox are now discovering that the Java software is not a replacement technology, but rather an extension of their current computing environments. Think home banking, Internet shopping, entertainment, games, access to business systems far away from work--even a personal ATM that lets you download funds into a smart card via your phone. Going Further with Jini Why is Java technology so important? It's the network! With Java, the Internet and private networks become your computing environment. The Java platform started it, and now Sun's next R&D product, Jini, furthers it. Jini consists of a small amount of Java code (48 KB) in class library form and some conventions to create a "federation" of Java virtual machines on the network, similar to how communities are created today. Each virtual machine acts on behalf of one or more network citizen(s) in this community. Network citizens can be persons, devices, applications or data. Jini allows all network citizens to dynamically share and work, without prior knowledge of each other's capabilities. Each federation is defined by the citizens that want to join, for example, the services in a conference room, hotel, field office or home. When network citizens need to do a task they "lookup" each others' services. Without pre-configuration or driver installation, the network citizen can use the service by moving the platform independent Java code around the network. Upon completion, the collection of network citizens working together on the task can move on independently to other tasks. The Microsoft Unease Thus, it was Sun's turn to lead the charge. Java promised to deliver on the long-held dream of software developers, allowing them to write programs that would run on any computer regardless of the operating system. That threatened Microsoft, which recruits developers to write software specifically for Windows. Netscape was to be the distribution channel to offer Java. However, competitive tensions built up. Netscape became suspicious when Sun introduced its own Web browser, named HotJava. Netscape's distrust grew when Sun licensed Java to Microsoft, which was adapting its own strategy to the Internet. Whether the situation improves now with America Online buying up Netscape, remains to be seen. For IBM, Java was God-sent. IBM sells five different types of computers and operating systems--mainframes, minicomputers, workstations, and two flavours of PC--none of which is compatible with the others, much to customers' chagrin. Now the company is hard at work building high-performance versions of Java into each of its operating systems so that for the first time in its history, IBM's entire computer line will be able to share software. Lotus, now part of IBM, fell from first place in spreadsheets in the early 1990s as PC users switched from DOS to Windows, a transition Lotus was late to spot. Lotus foresees a similar shift now to Java computing, in large part because Windows and the MS Office word-processing and spreadsheet programs have become so massive and feature-laden that they bog down all but the most powerful PCs. IBM was looking at Sun to neutralise Microsoft desktop monopoly. But when Sun dithered, IBM started pushing Java as a way to attack Microsoft from below and above, by enabling servers, instead of PCs, to run applications, and by linking those applications to a myriad of non-PC devices such as hand-held computers, cellular phones and television set-top boxes; these, by some industry estimates, could account for more than one-third of all the devices hooked to the Internet by 2001. IBM boasts an army of 3,000 Java programmers--more than Sun Microsystems itself--who are collaborating with Sun's staff on a common Java operating system and technologies for non-PC products. "Our goal is for at least 50 percent of these devices to support 100 percent Pure Java," says IBM internal strategy memo. Finding the Holy Grail Bill Gates, Microsoft chairman and chief executive, in spite of the last fortnight's court ruling (see "The gathering Storm"), looks poised. He predicts, "As Sun, IBM and Oracle all compete to be the 'true' Java server software solution, the incompatibility of their products and goals will become more evident." But, points out John Gage, Sun's chief scientist, Java might not be the ultima ratio. As a software language, it's just the means to reach the ubiquitous cross-computing platform the world is eagerly waiting for. A lot of synergistic things have happened in Internet and enterprise technology in the last three years, and these are just the beginning: JDK, the sandbox, applets, thousands of Java startups, JavaBeans, Netscape Communicator, thousands of Internet service providers, 60 million Internet users, 56K and cable modems, electronic commerce, and JavaOS for Business. More than merely a series of software products and events, the list above is an indication of how fast Java has grown in the last three years. Networks are going everywhere--small offices, workgroups, corporate-wide, wireless, home, field offices, schools, hotels and a heterogeneous set of devices, network management software and distributed applications will be available. Investments in broadband networks for global reach continues unabated. But today's networks are too complex for average users to work and manage. Users are, therefore, demanding simple, reliable networks. Sharing, exchanging, computing and delivering information, data and services via utility-like networks will be more commonplace. So far Sun has kept its fractious Java allies in line and launched work on a flock of Java devices and software. The profits Sun reaps from Java will never match the sums that Microsoft and Intel have made from the Wintel platform; Sun will earn only titbits from Java licensing fees and the sale of chips and the JavaOS. Sun really has no choice but to give its language to the world; all of Java's ardent backers would flee if they glimpsed the spectre of another Microsoftian monopoly. The quest for reusable software is as old as software industry. Companies, large and small, are constantly hoping that a new technology will allow them to create software once and simply add to it as development continues. Right now, the bet is on Java.
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We believe it's time to re-examine the
operating system's role in computing. Operating systems exist to create an environment in
which compelling applications come to life. They do that by providing abstractions built
on the services provided by hardware. We argue that advances in hardware and networking
technology enable a new kind of OS to support tomorrow's applications. Such an operating
system would raise the level of abstraction for developers and users, so that individual
computers, file systems, and networks become unimportant to most computations in the same
way that processor registers, disk sectors, and physical pages are today." 
The real strength of the Java language, however, is
its power to save users money. IS managers think Java may be software's holy grail both
because it vastly simplifies creating and deploying applications and because it lets them
keep their existing "legacy" computers and software. Java programs, once
written, can run without modification on just about any kind of computer: a PC, a
Macintosh, a Unix workstation and even a mainframe. The underlying OS makes no difference.
