Java allies divided over direction of NC crusade

Sun CEO Scott McNealy claimed last week that his Java ally, Oracle chief Larry Ellison, has fixed on the wrong issue in his network computer (NC) crusade and defocused the Java/NC movement.

McNealy, speaking at the Netscape Devcon developers? meeting in San Jose, said there should not be a PC versus NC debate at all.

?It?s the Java browser versus the Windows PC. Larry [Ellison] is great but he got it wrong by pushing the $500 computer ? any employee would be insulted to get one of those on his desk. It has got us defocused,? said McNealy.

He said the industry had shifted from mainframes, thin pipes and dumb terminals to servers, thin pipes and fat clients. Now it should be servers, fat pipes and thin clients ? NC devices such as smartcards, watches and set-top boxes.

In the next 12 months, Sun will invest over $1 billion on the NC model, he said.

McNealy also criticised Microsoft, saying: ?If Windows was on a smartcard in a wallet we?d have to redesign every pair of trousers on the planet. Microsoft hates Java because a browser without Java is like a car without a steering wheel. Windows is an eight-ball ? Java gives you all 15 pool balls, including the eight.?

At its developers? conference last week, Netscape committed itself to Sun?s Java Beans technology, strengthening the anti-Microsoft alliance, the first fruits of which are expected to ship at the beginning of next year (PC Dealer, 18 June).

The company announced that it will work with Java partners IBM, Oracle and Sunsoft to integrate the Java Beans components technology with the Corba standard for object request brokers.