Sun casts stones at MS Windows

McNealy confident that corporates are looking at Java as a serious alternative to Windows.

Java has the potential to oust Windows' dominance on desktops,ious alternative to Windows. according to Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy, as the manufacturer expects Solaris to win corporate business and its programming language to be run on everything else.

At the Sunsoft division's Inside Sun Software event, McNealy said Unix vendors have the Java virtual machine in their environments, Apple has Java in Macs and corporates can do without Windows.

'Windows users can use Netscape browsers or Java stations for everything.

All the data and applications are on the Web,' he said.

Sun customer Nicholas-Applegate Capital Management said it was using Citrix software via browsers to connect Java station users to Windows packages such as Microsoft Word and Excel. But McNealy did not claim that corporates will abandon their Windows OS. 'I acknowledge that developers have to write for Windows and Java,' he said, 'but those are the clear leaders. If Microsoft uses Java code in applications that does not make them Java and it cannot use the logo.'

Sunsoft also made a series of announcements aimed at providing software to enterprises; it launched the latest version of Solaris Unix OS, revealed a version of Solstice Enterprise Manager to be launched next month and said its clustering technology has been endorsed by Informix, Netscape, Oracle, Sybase, Tivoli and Syntax.

It also announced the release of JavaOS 1.1 for network computers and JavaOS for Appliances, and closed its acquisition of French developer Chorus Systems.

Sun hopes to use Solaris' tweaks to appeal to customers who would normally choose Hewlett Packard or IBM Unix. Solaris will contain 64-bit files, the ability to change almost all hardware components without shutdown and Sun Cluster 2.

In 1998, an upgrade will add a 64-bit kernel, systems management and a transaction processing monitor. A clustered file system, global networking and global device access are expected in 1999.