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Simon Phipps's personal commentary

Salon on Java [WebTech]

Salon has an article on the Java vs Microsoft case [via Sys-Con] which seems well thought out (even if the author didn't, it seems, speak to anyone from Sun...) and has useful pointers to other material. Most important for me is the observation

In the end, C# and Java are perhaps best analyzed in that light. They may be similar languages, but there's a philosophical gulf between the two. The people who ultimately choose Java will likely value compatibility over the performance gains you get from building a program specifically for one system. They'd prefer that everything ran everywhere, even if they have to lose their "code investment." The people who choose .Net may also care about going cross-platform, but they'd like some flexibility in the matter. They'd like to be able to build a program that runs only on Windows, so it works with all their other programs that also work only on Windows.

Now, I don't agree with the implication that Java is inflexible - code will need a fundamental re-write to move to either the Java environment or to .Net, regardless of the language. Nor do I agree with the implication that the any-platform promise of .Net will become real or reliable any time soon - it will always depend on third-party effort and the non-Windows versions will always be down-level. And the thinking is a little sloppy, at one point comparing C# and the Java language and going on to compare the Java environment and .Net. But I've consistently said that the factors that make people choose Java or native Windows programming were ultimately not technical but strategic. That's why you'll never see this sort of rationality on SlashDot...

posted at 4:48 PM (UK) | |