It's 2003 -- and for a year or so, the still-prominent Intel-based PC has been host to a plethora of browsers and browser-based applications spawned by the freeing of Netscape's Communicator source code. Alongside Microsoft's Internet Explorer, the various browsers vie for user attention, but none dominates the field.
Beneath the browsers and other applications runs the Windows operating system. But -- and here's the clincher -- Microsoft's OS is not alone. As with the free browser source code, some users have installed variations of a similarly free and openly developed operating system.
"Even though we don't have it right now, I think a lot of people would embrace having another choice," said developer Borne Mace. Mace is one of the developers hoping to bring about such a future by means of the JOS Project, the name for an openly developed and freely distributed Java-based operating system.
JOS founder Clark Evans said the project began in November 1997 with a handful of programmers. It had spun out of a discussion being held in mailing lists run by the Java-promoting Java Lobby. "In the first quarter of 1998 we had 21 people that contributed more than 2,000 hours collectively," Evans said via email.
Like the freeware Unix-based PC operating system Linux before it, Mace and others hope to bring JOS to the world within a couple of years as a better alternative. But unlike Linux -- which primarily attracts developers and hardcore users seeking Unix capabilities on their PCs -- JOS developers say this operating system will have both the technical prowess to appeal to a Linux-like audience and an end-user-oriented, graphical interface to truly challenge Windows.
"Linux has proven that a freeware operating system is a viable alternative," said Evans.
Yet JOS participants will quickly point out the differences between their effort, Linux, the recently unveiled BeOS for Intel, and even the various versions of the Java-based operating system out there.
Linux and BeOS are developer focused, they say, and the latter is not free, but proprietary. And as far as Sun's various Java operating systems, JOS supporters note that they are all aimed at specialized hardware environments, such as network computers and set-top boxes.
JOS, by contrast, is aiming square at the mainstream computer hardware sitting on millions of desks today.
"It's in the same spirit that Linux was created," Mace said. "But the huge problem with Linux and Unix systems in general ... is that they are not especially user friendly. The standard Windows 95 user out there who just bought a PC isn't going to use Linux. [JOS] would be an OS people want to use."
Among the JOS Project's precepts are the creation of a portable, extensible, open, and object-oriented operating system licensed under the popular model of freely licensed software, the GNU license. Built from the ground up to work on the Internet, plans call for a full implementation of the Java standard laid out by the International Standards Organization. It will also include built-in networking and be capable of booting from a floppy disk.
In addition to running on the latest Pentiums, JOS will be able to run on machines as dated as 486-based PCs with four Mbytes of RAM and a 40-Mbyte hard disk.
Of course, there are plenty of reasons this scenario is hard to envision -- one is the current and nearly absolute dominance of the Windows operating system on PCs today; another is the failure of Java to show up as a stable, high-performance platform for end-user applications.
That has most observers generally, if cautiously, supportive. "I think it's an exciting idea and I'd love to see it succeed," said Rick Ross, president of the JavaLobby, who is not directly involved in the project. "I think that some of the JOS people are among the smartest in the Java community."
Yet even among its participants, JOS has its critics, who want the project to quickly take on more of the coherence and structure they believe it needs to see its lofty mission through.
"The main thing I've been trying to do is push for a little more direction on exactly what the point is," said Ryan Sutter, a Java programmer of two years and an active participant in the JOS user-interface group since the concept's "early" days.
He sees some important differences between Linux's inception and that of JOS. "This has started as an idea with no kernel," he said, referring to the core functioning component of an operating system around which all the other operating system services work.
Right now, JOS still lacks its own kernel, an important weakness in Sutter's view. "Comparing that to the way Linux was done ... the [JOS] Project is running very differently. I have yet to see anything in the way of functioning code." But Sutter is nonetheless confident that this key OS component will emerge.
Meanwhile, he said, groups focusing on new user-interface ideas are coming up with innovative new concepts.
For its part, Troy Toman of Sun Microsystems' embedded software group said that he is pleased to hear of the project, simply because it shows enthusiasm for the language. But he said the company has no plans to work with the group.
Responding to some of the doubts raised about the project and the lack of Java applications for an OS to serve, Evans remains resolute.
"The Java language has great potential -- in just three years it has penetrated the market faster and more thoroughly than any previous language," Evans said. "It took C 10 years before any potent applications were released."
Certainly the hurdles for JOS are large, Evans acknowledges, "but we had to start somewhere. Everything big began small."
