X
Business

JavaStation Reprise?

I just heard a speculation that I hope is untrue: that Oracle is looking at using a Windows Java client in lieu of the ill fated 1990s java station to run its applications in mixed Sun/Windows environments. Somebody please tell me it isn't so!
Written by Paul Murphy, Contributor

A couple of weeks ago I contacted Craig Bender ("Thinguy") to suggest that he and I work together to put some Sun Ray demonstration projects on the table for the developing Oracle display computing band wagon. He hasn't responded - but I just got off the phone with a guy who's pretty plugged in on the other side of this and don't like the implications of what I heard.

The threat, I think, is that they'll put a lot of weight behind the Windows java client for Oracle apps - basically resurrecting the ill fated 1990s java station idea without the MAJC hardware to pull it off.

The Java Station originally ran the 110(?)Mhz microsparc in classic thin client mode: download the app, run it locally, upload results. To say that it sucked is to be overly polite: a version of the WordPerfect suite customized for it was so slow it made Windows 95 look good, and the set up was extremely (ahem, cough) "network sensitive" - i.e. network congestion or slowing caused lots of hard to trace client failures.

I know no one at Sun listens, but here's a heartfelt prayer from a frequent user: kill this idea before it gets up a head of steam and buries the best opportunity that's come along since NCD for real network computing to succeed in the marketplace.

Editorial standards