9 ms·
Yes, it is very interesting to look back at the ashes <-> roses transformations since 1997 (mostly roses -> ashes). -------- Ashes -> roses * Apple ----
by gvb 17y ago
Yes, it is very interesting to look back at the ashes <-> roses transformations since 1997 (mostly roses -> ashes).
--------
Ashes -> roses
* Apple
--------
Roses -> Ashes
* SUN
* Java (debatable, but the article waxes poetic about Sun Microsystems "which stole SGI's panache and profits by turning its own interactive-TV efforts into the popular Net software Java" except Java never became very popular on the Net, more on the server side and embedded).
* Netscape
* HotWired and Virtual Vineyards (who?)
- ivenkys 17y agoWell, Virtual Vineyards are : http://www.inc.com/magazine/19960615/1966.html http://www.inc.com/magazine/19960615/1966.html
- ajross 17y agoI don't think Java's status is really that debateable. It's a huge success, albeit not in the browser where it was originally targetted. Java changed the way IT departments look at software engineering, and to date its only significant competitor is a language designed expressly to compete against it by cloning its best features. Hackers don't like it, and Sun never found a way to get much revenue from it. But Java as a product and a platform can only be described as an unqualified success.
- seldo 17y agoI've never really understood why Java took off in the enterprise the way it did. Was it just the automatic garbage collection and no pointers was a killer feature over C++?
- ajross 17y agoFor a certain class of developers: yes, it is. The IT world needs to be able to build big projects with big teams of mediocre talent. They can't handle the pointer bugs of C++, not the runtime-only bugs of dynamic languages. Java was a breath of fresh air in this world.