Inspirational Technology

Inspirational Technology
Kimbro Staken's views on Mac OS X, XML databases, and other inspirational technologies.

Home

Wednesday, January 30, 2002

This is sure to get some attention. In case it is taken down, the original can likely be found here. The relevant quote from the original: "The J2EE Compatible brand has achieved significant momentum over the past two years, and we want to make sure that any open source efforts don't impact the viability of that effort.". This follows statements that describe the Sun Community Source License and the value of open standards. [Sam Ruby's Radio Weblog]
It seems that it would be a very bad idea for Sun to make enemies with the Open Source community. Sure we don't generate much revenue for them, but we sure do a lot to insure the Java platform remains viable.
I think Sun should be providing J2EE certification for free for Open Source projects. If they can pass the tests then there is no reason that they should be denied certification. This doesn't hurt the brand, it only hurts the other commercial entities in the space.
Sun and their licensees need to face up to the fact that the whole goal of J2EE is to turn App servers into commodities. Open Source just completes the effort, why shy away from it? The Vendors need to compete on added value, competing on how well they implement J2EE is foolish. We'd actually be better off if they'd abandon their proprietary engines and focus on commercial value add. With certification of open source software maybe this can happen. Sun could still structure terms such that commercial products would still need to pay a royalty to use the badge.
5:24:44 PM

Maine Governor defiant in face of iBook adversity [MacCentral]
It's too bad that this is coming under fire, but I have to admit the idea of putting a $1000+ laptop into the hands of 7th and 8th graders doesn't seem particularly practical. It is visionary though, and it will be interesting to see if the risk pays off. Clearly the potential is huge, whether it will work in the real world is another question. I just hope they get the opportunity to find out.
4:59:50 PM

Raising the Red Flag. Is it possible that the top Linux distribution--at least for desktops--is Red...Flag? [Linux Journal]
This is interesting to watch, countries like China are the one place where Linux may have a real shot at being a desktop operating system. I don't know if it will ever get beyond that, but it will certainly be interesting to see.
Doesn't bode well for Microsoft at all, they really need to figure out how to convert these emerging countries into revenue sources. One cost of being a monopoly is that at some point you run out of new people to sell stuff to and Wall Street doesn't like that. China and similar countries are important future markets for Microsoft, if they can reverse the piracy trend that is. Given developments like this, it isn't likely that Microsoft will get much help from the Chinese government to do that.
One other thing to consider about this, while it may be bad for Microsoft is it truly good for Linux in a global sense? I find it unlikely that the work done in this space will ever make it back into the global Linux software pool and what does make it back won't be of much use beyond the unique environment of China. It seems it would be more of a psychological and marketing victory more then anything else. Translating that into growth in the desktop space elsewhere will be difficult.
4:52:11 PM

© Copyright 2002 Kimbro Staken .
Last update: 2/2/02; 8:17:00 PM .
This theme is based on the SoundWaves (blue) Manila theme.

Presentations:

Native XML Databases Why Bother?
(HTML) (Powerpoint)

Resume:

Sites:

Software:

Writing:

Presentations: