McNealy: Don't let Microsoft steal the Net

CNET News.com ^ | March 26, 2002, 12:50 PM PT | Stephen Shankland

[Bush2000]

SAN FRANCISCO--Programmers are on the front lines in the battle to keep Microsoft from taking over the standards that underlie the Internet, Sun Chief Executive Scott McNealy told loyalists of Sun's Java software Tuesday. McNealy often criticizes Microsoft, whose popular Windows software ensures it a legion of supporting programmers. But during his JavaOne keynote speech, McNealy turned up the volume, saying the struggle is for nothing less than the future of humanity.

"I need your help. Mankind needs your help," said a somber McNealy of efforts to secure Java's future.

McNealy, somewhat more subdued than in many of his keynotes, vowed to move off the stage as quickly as possible so programmers could get back to learning about Java technology. "I don't know why I'm up here, being a golf major," he quipped.

Java--a programming language combined with software to run those programs on a wide variety of computing devices and operating systems--has become popular with banks and other major customers as a way to power Internet services. But Sun is locked in a struggle with Microsoft, which is trying to lure programmers and customers to its competing, and proprietary, .Net products.

Meanwhile, Sun has a resurgent IBM to contend with. Big Blue's Unix servers are stealing market share away from Sun, and IBM's Java server software has much better market share than Sun's.

McNealy--Java better for Web services
Scott McNealy, CEO, Sun Microsystems But at the JavaOne conference, where programmers are ascendant, McNealy focuses chiefly on the rival in Redmond.

The standards underlying the Internet currently are open, but McNealy said he fears Microsoft will try to modify them to weave its products inextricably into the Internet's fabric. "I want everybody to be aware of the opportunity for very large monopolists to hijack open APIs," he said, referring to the application programming interfaces that govern how programs draw upon standard services such as requesting a Web page.

McNealy illustrated his fears of Microsoft dominance by talking about his wife's attempt to buy groceries online using the Netscape Web browser. McNealy presented the warning message she received: "The Safeway.com site is optimized for use with the Internet Explorer Web browser. Other browsers, such as Netscape, are not supported."

"This is Safeway. This is where you get your food," McNealy said. "I think it's a pretty important site to keep open out in the marketplace."

Microsoft said McNealy should worry more about his own customers' needs than about Microsoft. "McNealy remains fixated on Microsoft rather than on Sun's customers and their technologies," said John Montgomery, group product manager for Microsoft's .Net Developer Platform.

"McNealy's rhetoric about hijacking open standards is ironic, given the long history Sun has with shrouding themselves in openness while running proprietary software," Montgomery added, referring to Sun's Solaris version of the Unix operating system and its attempts to advocate the NeWS windowing system for Unix when others advocated X Windows.

Programmers are the ones who must keep Microsoft at bay, McNealy said. They should test their Web sites with several Web browsers, he said, and beware the appeal of the latest software development kit from Microsoft--the conduit through which Microsoft spreads its software standards.

"The first hit of heroin is free," McNealy said.

At the same time, McNealy warned of problems within the Java community as well: running server software written in Java that works on one company's Java environment--called an "application server"--but not another's.

The issue has surfaced with a new programming tool from BEA Systems, tied for first place with IBM in the app server market.

To help ameliorate the situation, Sun announced on Monday the Application Verification Kit, software that checks a program to make sure it will work on any application server. The kit doesn't preclude tuning for one particular app server, said enterprise Java marketing manager Milena Volkova, but does ensure the program is portable.

"If you're writing to an app server, use the AVK and test on one other app server...just to make sure you haven't grabbed some proprietary extension or written outside the Java 2 Enterprise Edition specifications," McNealy said.

Meanwhile, Sun and a key open-source group, the Apache Software Foundation, announced Tuesday that they reconciled a nagging disagreement that had been making it difficult for open-source groups to participate in the Java Community Process by which Sun and others govern the future of Java.

Under the agreement, hashed out Friday under a deadline to resolve the issue by JavaOne, open-source implementations of Java standards are permitted, said Jason Hunter, the Apache representative in the Java Community Process. Apache, along with components such as Jakarta for running Java on servers, is a major feature in the landscape of server software, and Sun wanted Apache's cooperation.

Without the agreement, "Apache was going to have to abandon support for the JCP, because Apache needed to be legal," Hunter said in an interview.

Apache was in the peculiar situation of having help from Sun engineers but warnings from Sun legal staff. "You can't have the left hand helping and the right hand telling us it's illegal," Hunter said.

Sun also will provide compatibility-kit software to ensure the open-source work complies with Java standards and will pay via scholarships for some support to perform the compatibility testing.

[Bush2000]

McNealy: "Don't let MS steal the Internet. Let *US* steal the Internet!"

[Bush2000]

bump

[Bush2000]

At the same time, McNealy warned of problems within the Java community as well: running server software written in Java that works on one company's Java environment--called an "application server"--but not another's.

Write once, break everywhere.

[Jonathon Spectre]

"I need your help. Mankind needs your help," said a somber McNealy of efforts to secure Java's future.

Mankind is busy using Windows, sir. You need to find some aliens.

Or just use the unlimited power of the federal government to compete for you.

[JonH]

The best quote is, "Scott should worry about Sun's customers needs rather than what Microsoft is doing". Sun's business is in the tank (along with the stock value) and his recovery marketing plan seems to be to sue Microsoft. Even is Microsoft is Satan, Sun needs to focus on their own problems.

[Revolting cat!]

McNealy: Don't let Microsoft steal the Net

As a Redmond insider, what says you? Is you guys stealing or is you not? (Just between us here, of course.)

[Bush2000]

As a Redmond insider, what says you? Is you guys stealing or is you not? (Just between us here, of course.)

Dude, nobody (and I mean nobody) can "steal" the Internet. It's simply too distributed, too diverse, and the technologies running it are too simple and too ingrained to be "stolen" by anybody.

What McNealy is really afraid of is getting locked out of the commercial Internet; that is, the subsection which actually brings in revenue, such as the market for servers. If MS is successful in making .NET more ubiquitous than Java, then his company will turn into just another hardware OEM. But for McNealy to stand there and wave the populist flag -- as if he gives a rat's ass about you or any of us -- is the height of hypocrisy. If Sun's software is better, it will have to compete against C#. That's got to annoy the crap out of McNealy. His pie is shrinking...

[proxy_user]

I don't know about Java vs. .Net, but Solaris beats the pants off WinXP. You can't even configure Windows any more--you just have to take your orders from the wizard. I don't think the OS admins will appreciate this in the long run...

[Arkinsaw]

Microsoft makes me crazy. I hope to see them knocked down a few pegs. But Java sucks and is not the guy to do it.

[Glenn]

but Solaris beats the pants off WinXP

You're really reaching. XP and Solaris are in two different product spaces.

[Revolting cat!]

As I read it, he's warning against the possibility, however likely or otherwise, of Microsoft imposing a proprietary standard or standards on the Internet in the same way that it has in effect succeeded in imposing a proprietary standard on the desktop operating system environment. It's a scary world out there. How did Amdahl, Siemens and those other guys compete with IBM in the mainframe arena, building fully compatible machines during the 1970s and 80s?

[Bush2000]

As I read it, he's warning against the possibility, however likely or otherwise, of Microsoft imposing a proprietary standard or standards on the Internet in the same way that it has in effect succeeded in imposing a proprietary standard on the desktop operating system environment.

Keep in mind that MS is really the underdog in the server marketplace. Sun and other vendors simply don't like the idea of MS eating their lunch. I find it hard to cry for Sun when it's losing business to cheaper alternatives such as Linux and Wintel.

[nygoose]

Java is simply a cup of coffee. That's all folks.

[gore3000]

McNealy: "Don't let MS steal the Internet. Let *US* steal the Internet!"

Wrong. Java is open source, Microsoft is not.

[Bush2000]

Wrong. Java is open source, Microsoft is not.

Java is most definitely not open source. Just try to modify the basic Java APIs and watch the Sun lawyers don't descend.

[Bush2000]

... they swarm ...

[AaronAnderson]

If MS is successful in making .NET more ubiquitous than Java, then his company will turn into just another hardware OEM.

.Net is going to have to become much less proprietary than it is to compete with Java for that to happen. If it does, great. But for McNealy to stand there and wave the populist flag -- as if he gives a rat's ass about you or any of us -- is the height of hypocrisy.

I am afraid it may be tied with Bill Gates and his public support for standards but private destain and conniving to break compatibility as proven by internal memos.

If Sun's software is better, it will have to compete against C#. That's got to annoy the crap out of McNealy. His pie is shrinking...

Yep, the more of threat .Net is to Java the less proprietary it becomes. Sun caved into an open source organization with a net profit of zero. It's amazing what companies will do when they have to compete. Who knows, we may see a day where M$ opens their own JCP equivalent.

[antidemocommie]

PURE BS! The sign should read "Don't Let The Government Steal the Net!"

[HardStarboard]

>>>. How did Amdahl, Siemens and those other guys compete with IBM in the mainframe arena, building fully compatible machines during the 1970s and 80s?<<<

Minor correction. If Siemens was in the business in the US, I never saw them. Maybe in Europe. The four (4) manufacturers of IBM compatible mainframes in the 70's, 80's and 90's were (are); Fujitsu, Hitachi, Amdahl and IBM. Amdahl is Fujitsu based with some(less than they claim)proprietary modifications. I worked for both IBM (thru 73) and later Hitachi (81-91).

It was a fun ride - competing against IBM was tough - they were very firmly entrenched with the top decision makers in most of the large mainframe users. But when you won one - it was a heck of a party. Hitachi's strong point was reliability - 4 or 5 time the MTBF of IBM.

McNealy problem is in a way similar to competing against IBM in the mainframe arena. IBM is the low cost producer and they can cut price (which they didn't like to do but would for big accounts). Microsoft can crank out code more efficiently than just about anyone - they have the most productive software engineers in terms of integrated and tested lines of code in the business. McNealy can't produce fast enough - he's doesn't have economy of scale and the productivity from what he does have.

And thats 10 times more than I had planned to say! Sorry!