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Joel missed the commodity/complement parts of Java. Sun's approach with Java was to commoditize the language, especially as it ran on PCs, so that they could l

by gvb 17y ago

Joel missed the commodity/complement parts of Java. Sun's approach with Java was to commoditize the language, especially as it ran on PCs, so that they could license the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), especially on embedded systems (e.g. phones). The Java language is the complement of the JVM. Sun was actually pretty successful in this approach. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_%28software_platform%29#Licensing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_%28software_platform%29#Li... Having said that, recent history indicates that Joel's take on Sun's problems with their strategies (plural because they flip-flopped strategies) ultimately was correct.

spokey 17y ago
I think the other bit he missed was the early focus Sun placed on Java Applets. I think they initially saw Java and JVM primarily as platform for distributing client side code to web browsers, to set-top boxes, to mobile phones, etc. In this way Sun's focus on Java is analogous to Netscape's efforts to distribute a free web browser--they are trying to commoditize the client to sell more servers. Of course, as it played out Java got a lot more traction on the server side than the client side. (I think the ability to easily develop on Windows and deploy to Unix/Linux played a role in that.) But by 2002 Java had already pretty much lost on the browser side, supplanted by Flash and later robust JavaScript. I think 2002 might have been the thick of their JavaME (mobile platform) efforts though.