COSMO21
Microsoft Will Have Java In Windows O.S.

Ray Van Eng (05/02/96)


If you can't fight them, join them. Finally, Microsoft is giving it in and announced that they will do more than just supporting Java in their Internet Explorer browser, they will actually be integrating the hot new computer language from Sun Microsystems right into Microsoft's future versions of the Windows 95 and Windows NT operating systems.

This dramatic move from Microsoft will be seen by many as a major endorsement for Java as a premier programming language for Internet application development. Practically, all other major operating systems vendors such as IBM, Apple, Novell, and other UNIX vendors such as Hewlett-Packard, Santa Cruz Organization (SCO), Siliocon Graphics Inc. (SGI) and Sun have announced or will announce similar plans to incorporating Java technologies right into the core of their respective operating systems.

By having native Java support in the operating system, Microsoft will take a sweep at Netscape by eliminating the need of a Java enabled browser such as the very popular Navigator 2.0. The adoption of a Java Virtual Machine into the OS also means that the speed of executing a Java application will be greatly improved because Java is an interpreted language rather than a compiled one, and has to rely on the virtual machine to run Java applets on desktop machines. About the only bad things that can happen for a wide-spread adoption of a single computing language across so many platforms is that it might increase the chance of spreading computer viruses an making it easier for hackers to break into your system.

Right now, a Java enabled browser can only execute the self-contained Java codes downloaded from a Java web site but can not read and write files to the user machines for security reasons. However, an operating system that has the Java run-time engine directly built-in (which is what Microsoft and others says they will do) will allow such tasks to be performed. This will open up tremendous opportunities for software developers to write programs that can perform system functions just like so many software applications can do today.

With the Internet as a platform for delivering just-in-time software components, this has tremendous implications for future computing. As an example, a word processor application in a future version of Windows will be able to run a Java spread-sheet application without launching a separate Java web browser or any other Java virtue machine.

Microsoft's recently announced Active-X platform is intended to work hand in hand with Java applets to extend the capabilities of interactive world wide web sites such as the creation of multimedia enhanced web pages, database access, just-in-time software execution and many other yet un-dream of functionalities.

Despite Microsoft's embrace for Java, the software giant's chairman and CEO Bill Gates said that "We see Java as a great development. We think the number of languages that will be popular for application development will continue to grow." Microsoft is currently trying to position its own Visual Basic Script as a competitor to JavaScript, a derivative of the Java language to be used on web pages.

On another note, Sun Microsystems is reported to be working on a Java optimized microprocessor chip set and a Java-based OS to be used with inexpensive network devices. Sun is targeting the corporate market where the cost of the hardware, software, administration, service and support for a PC can be as high as $40,000 over a five year period, according to a study by the Gartner Group. With a $500 stripped down computer running Java applications downloaded from the Internet or the Intranet, the cost of ownership is greatly reduced.


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