JAVASOFT PRESIDENT ALAN BARATZ DESCRIBES WHY THE BUZZ OVER JAVA

If you’re not familiar with the term Java in reference to the Internet, then you had better learn fast, because the phenomenon is sweeping the infant market like a rapidly replicating virus. Java is an object-oriented programming language that allows client-based applications to be executed by any type of client computer located anywhere on the Internet or World Wide Web.

Speaking at the JavaOne applications developers’ conference in San Francisco, Calif. early this month, Alan Baratz, president of the newly formed JavaSoft an operating company of Sun Microsystems, Inc. based in Cupertino, Calif. explained the popularity of the language.

He says there are four major reasons for the language’s widespread adoption. One is that the Java is an alternative open platform for the information technology industry. It is architecturally neutral. Thus, developers can create an application once and thereafter can be assured it will run on any hardware platform resident on the Internet or World Wide Web.

Second, the language allows developers to create applications for a network and they can be safely delivered in the environment. In addition, the application can be embedded in a Web page, “so that Web pages come to life, not just with animation, but with sophisticated new user interfaces, and user environments for manipulating data within the pages,” Baratz explains.

The third reason is more pragmatic as the language lowers the barriers to entry for new applications development. Writing Java applications, the software developer is no longer faced with the problem of finding shelf space in retail outlets or in catalogs dominated by name brand software suppliers. Java applications are delivered and sold over the network. Finally, the application itself does not comprise the 20 to 30 megabytes of software of today’s products. “An applet or a collection of applets makes a nice entry product in this new space,” Baratz asserts.

A final reason Java has garnered so much interest is that it makes it easier to manage software in an enterprise that has thousands of desktop devices. Upgrading software does not require re-installing the new version on each of the desktops individually. Rather, the upgrade is installed on the server and all the clients on the network are automatically upgraded.

While the benefits are what make Java interesting to software developers, the availability of the language at no cost is what spurred developers to jump on the Java bandwagon. In the past, a new language spent a few years in a research lab. It was then put into the market and marketing drove interest in adopting the language.

The Internet changed the model for developing and distributing Java to the larger customer base. The Internet “is what we at Sun have leveraged to help Java achieve the momentum that it has in the marketplace today,” Baratz declares.

“ We began by making it available on the Web to anybody who was interested in experimenting with it, building upon it, and using it. That generated an enormous groundswell of application development, creating interest in a very short time among the user community, and bringing value for all of us.”

Earlier this year, Sun created JavaSoft to make Java a revenue-generating product. Sun followed the only business model the Internet knows. It gave away the software expecting to make money on future upgrades and add-ons.

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