DaveNet 1997: Java
Bill Gates apparently looked at Java and asked the same question a lot of us asked. Where's the toolbox? And he did more than ask the question, later today he offers an answer. 4/2/97The shame of Java is that it's being used to serve Sun's corporate purposes. To keep their stock price up, to employ more and more people. They're willing to share power, but only with other huge deal-making corporations. 4/3/97
When will Silicon Valley get the message that great software is created by people not companies? When will the financiers of Silicon Valley set up corporate systems that serve the products, instead of vice versa? And when will creative engineers stop selling their babies to the miserable petty agendas of small thinking corporate credit-takers? 4/4/97
The press only knows three stories, Apple is dead, Microsoft is evil, and Java is the future. And they only ask two questions -- Is Apple still dead? Is Microsoft still evil? Let's ask the third question. 4/5/97
I write code in Java-like languages. You can build new things with Java, for sure, but you can do that with other languages and in more complete environments. In other words, if you have an idea there's no need to wait for Java to catch up with you. 4/5/97
"When Microsoft wanted to do Java, Sun told us we had to help fund JavaSoft in a big way and do a lot of other things, so we did what they asked. When Sun wanted to clone Windows they didn't call us or pay us or anything. Which is open Java or Windows?" Bill Gates on 4/5/97
I think it's ironic, being a Mac developer, that I'm going to meet up with my potential Unix brothers and sisters on Bill Gates's operating system. 4/10/97
When you're lucky enough to be at the center of a rising platform, as Sun and Netscape are, its best to kick back, fix the bugs, improve performance, promote the developers, sell like hell, and enjoy the rewards. It's tempting to believe that more than luck was responsible, but what a burden that is. It's a philosophic challenge to define yourself after a lighting bolt of good luck strikes, but a company without a philosophy, or a weak one, has no future. 5/22/97
"This is a trap," says Sun. "It defeats the purpose of Java." Yes, that's true. Could they have possibly not seen it coming? 6/18/97
Java has been hyped, but it hasn't been marketed. Marketing is more than promotion, it's positioning, defining, and connecting. What are your strengths? What are your limits? What is your product used for? What *isn't* it used for? 6/23/97
When I say that Java isn't positioned, that's a challenge. Tell me what it is. What isn't it? How does it fit in with software that's not written in Java? I want to know. 6/25/97
Sun says Java! Microsoft says Windows! Brand vs brand. 6/30/97
Sun has the opportunity to carve a niche, but they have to decide what it is. 6/30/97
The Java deal is sweet for Microsoft and must be a bitter pill for Sun; but don't cry for them, Sun could have easily bought Apple and kept the good stuff, any time in the last two years. 8/6/97
I had a weird dream last night. Bill Gates and Scott McNealy were members of a reggae band. Dancing and weaving just like Toots and the Maytalls. Diddly diddly diddly Rasta Man! They were happy! 10/10/97
Gates is rich, but McNealy also has more money than any human could spend in a lifetime. They're playing a disgusting game with the livelihoods and creativity of developers, and are crowding out other possible headline grabbing software. They've turned the Internet into a nasty soup of politics. I'm sick of the greed and personal ambition. 10/10/97
It took me a long time to get this -- Microsoft wasn't trying to kill Java, they were trying to make it fit into their world. Microsoft sees it as a way to program COM objects. They want Java to fit into their platform the same way we harnessed Frontier to control AppleScript objects. Same story, different platform, different times. 10/20/97
