JavaOne: McNealy takes the stage
Sun Chairman Scott McNealy took the stage at JavaOne on its final day. He came out wisecracking. "
The pony tail (CEO Jonathan Schwartz) and former CEO, now Chairman Scott McNealy, partially obscured software EVP Rich Green and Pit Crew, James Gosling, Java father and Sun Fellow.
McNealy gave one of his Top Ten lists, this time about the joys of not being the CEO after more than 20 years at the helm of Sun:
10. I don't have to apologize for things I say to Wall Street--Jonathan does
9. I am no longer on the most overpaid CEO list
8. I just say, "See Jonathan on that."
7. I read Hockey News without guilt
6. I shave even less often
5. I don't have to sign SOX certification any more
4. I have someone to blame now
3. I can sell my last business suit
2. Jonathan doesn't play golf, so I guess I gotta do it
1. My office is VERY close the Mens Room
[Watch a video clip of McNealy's JavaOne presentation]
McNealy said he is focusing his attention now on eliminating the digital divide through Java, not via PCs, such as the $100 PC from Nicholas Negroponte and MIT. "Imagine all [people] turning on Dell computers tomorrow," McNealy said. "We'd be three feet under from global warming," he said, taking one of his trademark shots at a competitor. He believes that Java, thin clients (a billion Java-enabled phones), and Web services are the answer to closing the digital divide. McNealy said he would be talking to governments around the world about how to help them eliminate the digital divide...and I would expect try to sell a lot of Sun products and infrastructure services.
McNealy, who famously said "You have no privacy," a few years ago, is also working on a privacy agenda. "Java technology has an enormous amount to offer to this problem,' he said, point to an estimated 3.3 billion Java devices, which aren't perfect but so much bette than other platforms, he said. Sun is working on end-to-end platform to drive seciurity, safety and privacy, he said, and encouraged the audience of about 20,000 at JavaOne to build applications with security in mind to enable a "civil society out on the Net as opposed to anarchy." In his mind, it seems Java is a civilizing force because it is a more secure and lightweight environment.
As Chariman of Sun Federal, McNealy said privacy and security were his number one priority. He gave an example of students taking pictures with camera phones and using the images to cheat on tests. His solution is for schools to install thin clients with the Java Web services client authentication so that students can't game the system. I'm not sure it's a sales pitch that will fly with education budgets what they are...