Sun Strikes While the Java's Hot

Licensing by Netscape is key to spread of technology

Around Sun Microsystems these days, the name Java means more than just a trip to the coffee maker. Sun has recently signed a licensing agreement with Netscape Communications Corp. for use of Sun's Java Internet technology. And, as Sun's done in the past, it's waking more than a few people up-this time with Java.

Sun announced the Java language, a new object-oriented programming environment for the Internet, last month at Sun World in San Francisco, along with the HotJava browser. Java allows World-Wide Web browsers to import small applications written into Web pages and have those applets, as Sun calls them, run within the browser as the user views the page. In effect, it's a way to bring Web pages out of their static existence and make them come alive. Instead of just looking at text and pictures, users can watch stock quotes roll across the page, play games, and use interactive tools within a page.

No sooner had the Java announcement been made than Netscape said it was licensing Java technology for use in its Netscape Navigator browser. Since Netscape Navigator is the most prevalent browser in use on the Web, with a market share of some 70 percent, the implications are large. It means that Netscape, a startup that barely existed a year ago, has become the prime instrument for spreading a key technology from one of the largest systems vendors in the industry. It also means that rather than let the technology stagnate, Sun has given it away in hopes of seeing it spread and become a de facto standard. Although it's questionable what short-term profit Sun will make, that's a step that an open systems company might be expected to take, and one that Sun hopes will contribute to its own long-term success through the increased vitality of the Internet.

Kim Polese, Sun's HotJava product manager, said the Netscape agreement is just the first of several she expects to come, but acknowledged the importance of Netscape. "They're certainly the biggest browser company out there," Polese said. "They represent a majority of early adopters on the Internet. The demand for licenses now is really overwhelming. The phone's ringing off the hook. People are interested in integrating Java not only into browsers, but also into other kinds of products like on-line services."

Netscape may be small in revenues, but it's huge in potential, said Rick Spence, on-line services analyst for Dataquest. "Netscape is focused on creating the best browser experience out there. I think this is definitely an example of a small up-and-coming company being a big influence on this market." In its early days, Intel had a similar influence, even though it was small in revenues compared to the PC manufacturers it supplied, Spence noted. "Now it's rapidly becoming almost bigger than those companies."

Why the huge interest in Java? "This is the next natural thing to happen on the Net and the Web," Polese says. "Interactivity on the Internet is sorely lacking today and browsing is kind of dull unless we can have some real-time response and compelling content. This technology happens to be the first to do it." Java is expected to run on Microsoft's Windows 95 and the next version of Apple's Macintosh OS. It takes no more processing power than most PCs or Macs have today. The language is architecture-neutral, so it can run on any OS or CPU. "In the heterogeneity of the Internet, that's really key," Polese says.

In addition, Sun's HotJava browser, which runs today only on Solaris Sparc, is being ported to HP-UX, SunOS, Linux, Windows NT, and Silicon Graphics' Irix.

Much of the stir that Java has created is due to the vast possibilities opened up by allowing dynamic applications within a browser page. "The fact that it's a dynamic environment means that when you build an application, instead of its being static, you can build an application that can be dynamically updated by sending new bits of code down the wire. Whenever you want to add a new feature the end user never has to install software," Polese says. "That's a very powerful feature, and it's because the language is dynamic."

Java is object-oriented, multithreaded, secure, and safe from viruses, Chuck McManis, senior technologist for Sun told system administrators at a recent briefing. Addressing the virus question, he said, "The Java language is written so there is nothing you can do that will endanger the system. The language has no semantics for self-modification or uncontrolled changes in the executive flow. A syntactically correct program cannot modify itself, and this is reinforced by the compiler." Thus, you avoid the danger of importing a virus with the Java code.

Development of Java began at Sun in 1989 with a secret project called Green, which sought a way to control consumer appliances. Over the years, the project was called by several names. Now, Sun has acknowledged that its own self-interest is served by making the technology as widely available as possible. "This is about as open as it gets," Polese said. "We're licensing this to everybody and anybody. We want it to get out there in volume. In an environment like the Internet, you have competing protocols and people coming out with incompatible technologies every day. Java is a technology that surmounts that problem because it makes it possible to build browsers that can upgrade themselves and learn new protocols on the fly. This allows people to build new protocols and have other people use them without having to go through standards bodies and get approval and 100,000 other people agreeing that it's the right thing to do.

"Beyond that, the language specification is being published on the Internet, so that all API's are open," Polese said. "We're also letting people have access to the source code of the run-time system that gets ported to the various platforms. If somebody wants to see this running on another platform, they can do it. We will send them the source code."