Whether a new technology or just a new collaboration, there was a plenty of confusion this morning over Sun and IBM's announcement of a new Java operating system, dubbed JavaOS for Business.
After last week's announcement of a JavaOS for Consumers, IBM and Sun Microsystems said today that they would co-develop and co-market yet another Java operating system. JavaOS for Business is likely to replace the operating systems currently running on the companies' respective networks. In the case of Sun, that means the newly shipped JavaStation; IBM, meanwhile, is the leading network computer vendor with its Network Station line.
Sun and IBM plan to ship the new operating system by summer. IBM will put JavaOS for Business on its high-end Network Station models early next year, it said. Sun will gradually wean its JavaStation customers from the current JavaOS for NCs to the new software.
But the plans for a new operating system for network computers were greeted with some confusion. Why a new Java OS?
"I would see this as being a culmination of a thousand days of Java and NCs -- a specific product that gives very specific guidance to [Java developers]," said Jim Hebert, general manager of the embedded systems software group at SunSoft.
The network computer has made a dent in the market," added Janpieter Scheerde, Sunsoft's president. "In addition to the PC market there [are] fixed-function kiosks, bank tellers [requiring] a specific environment. In order to jumpstart that market, we need to give specific guidance to independent software vendors as to what specification they have to write for."
The new operating system may eventually find its way into other kinds of machines, said Hebert, but "the focus is on network computers and other comparable devices like kiosks."
Thus, by joining forces on the Java operating system, Sun and IBM hope to give Java and Java-based network computers a better shot against personal computers in transaction-intensive applications, such as banking, ticketing, and airline kiosks.
Zona Research analyst Ron Rappaport saw it as a move of necessity by the lone generals at the head of NC's thinning ranks. "Perhaps most interesting is the parties that were not involved," he said. "Where's Oracle? Where's Netscape?"
Rappaport said the announcement shows two vendors in the network computer environment trying to provide a feeling of unity, "which is what they need to do. Provide some sense of unification before NC comes to mean 'not compatible.'"
The companies plan to license the operating system to other network computer-makers, seeking to make it the network-computing industry standard.
