JavaSoft: Java a sturdy enterprise tool

JavaSoft President Alan Baratz's keynote at Internet World focused largely on Java's development in the past year, highlighting the most recent advance, Java JumpStation. Baratz demonstrated JumpStation during the keynote, and used its capabilities to show his audience that Java is maturing into a sturdy enterprise tool.

While Baratz largely avoided mention of Microsoft during his speech, much of what he demonstrated was to show that Java can, in effect, let a company consider running a business without using Microsoft's software.

Baratz told Eric Lundquist, PC Week editor-in-chief, in a brief interview immediately after his speech that was broadcast live on PC Week Radio, that part of his message today was to make clear that Java is ready for the enterprise.

He also told Lundquist that Activator, part of JumpStart, was not designed as a quick patch to fix Java's compatibility issues with Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser. Rather, it's been in development for some time. "It was done because so many older browsers don't support the new Java Virtual Machine," Baratz said. "This provides a nice, simple upgrade path for users of those older browsers."

During his keynote, Baratz stated that users will not give up PCs, perhaps signaling that JavaSoft does not expect a massive new market for Java-based network computers to develop.