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"Thus, Java has the potential, at least, to break the hold that the hardware and operating system monoliths have on the computer world, and could make hardware
by bdcravens 6y ago
"Thus, Java has the potential, at least, to break the hold that the hardware and operating system monoliths have on the computer world, and could make hardware and software tycoons like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates as obsolete in the 21st century as railway barons have become in the 20th."
The author had an idea that while we laugh today, had a glimmer of truth - it was open source, and not Java itself, that ensured that "tycoons" didn't a have a stranglehold on the industry.
- parasubvert 6y agoI suppose it depends on how you view “stranglehold”. They certainly are listening to their customers who prefer “open” in some contexts. So in some ways they’re better behaved. And most excitement and activity in server side ecosystems tends to be open source. But in terms of economic might, ie. revenue and equity, open source has been a weapon wielded by the tycoons to add to their might. Linux is successful but the dominant vendor is owned by IBM. Canonical some day may also get scooped up. Intel is finally feeling the pressure of custom chips and portable languages (it’s market cap is down to $230b), but Microsoft is nearing 2 trillion in market cap, Apple is 2.3 trillion, and Google/Amazon aren’t far behind either. The result is that we arguably have more open and higher quality infrastructure than ever before. But the ultimate tycoons remain the same - with Google + Amazon being the new entrants.
- alisonkisk 6y agoAnd yet MS, Apple, and Google still have a stranglehold on desktops, outside of a tiny minority of restricted fleet use cases. The web, not open source, was a potential escape, but after a brief window were seeing that fall back as the walked garden app world takes over.