Vendors Display a Taste for Java

Vendors were out to prove that there is more to intranets than hype, and to demonstrate that there are real business benefits to be gained from the technology at last week?s Intranet Expo.

Netscape, Oracle and IBM pointed to the reduced cost of ownership of thin-client NCs over conventional PCs as one major benefit.

But Andrew Lees, Microsoft internet and desktop marketing manager, said there was no difference in cost of ownership between a network computer and a properly managed networked PC. ?The problem is that PCs are difficult to manage right now.?

Sam Sethi, Netscape product marketing manager, responded: ?Microsoft would not have talked about cost of ownership unless it was for the Web. It would have forced people down the path of annually upgrading fatter and fatter clients.?

Client/Server Technologies announced Jacada which wraps mainframe and mini legacy applications in Java for delivery to Java-based thin clients independently of browsers, Web servers and HTTP.

Centura released its Foresight 2 suite which allows users to migrate and scale applications written in Cobol, Cics, Powerbuilder and Visual Basic to Java-based Webs. IST?s launch of Visaj rapid application development tool was written in pure Java with full JDK 1.1 and Java Beans support.a Softquad launched its Hot Metal Intranet Publisher, claiming it was the first publishing tool specifically aimed at Intranet content publishing.