Fw: Thin Clients

 > The rumor mill says that Java isn't turning out to be as portable as it
had
> hoped to be and that Perl was being considered as a better alternative.
>  Any truth to this one?

Debates will rage for years on this subject. The challenge is that the Java
portability question is such a subjective, not objective, issue. We truly
won't know the answer for a couple of years, at best.

However, ponder these empirical, irrefutable facts:
Lotus couldn't make its Java eSuite MS Office alternative run fast enough
or provide enough features and pulled the plug on it on Sep 9, 1999 (leaving
IBM with only the Lotus Windows-base SmartSuite as its MS Office
alternative).

And, also early in September, Sun acquired Star Division Software and its
StarOffice product. However, note that unlike eSuite, StarOffice runs as a
_native_ application on each of its target platforms.

Java has its place and will be valuable in many areas. But it looks more and
more to me like the dew is off the lily and it's important to position Java
correctly--not as a do-all and be-all panacea.


rp

>
>

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