RE: Another programming standard falls

> See, I don't get it. Microsoft bundle a bunch of stuff with their OS,
> and the anti-MS camp complain about Microsoft's so-called monopoly (or
> monopolistic practices, which aren't the same thing). And
> then Microsoft
> don't bundle some stuff with their OS, and the exact same people start
> complaining again... about what exactly? You can still download Java
> onto Windows easily, it's no big deal, what is the problem here?

Any time a vendor with such a huge market share includes or excludes something from their OS, it has a huge impact. IF MS had stopped including Internet Explorer in their OS, and the user had to go download something to get a web browser, it's likely Navigator might still have a good chunk of the browser market. But MS made it easy for users to get to a browser (bundling IE), and most users will take the path of least resistance.

A JVM download is what .... 5+ MEG? Most of the world is still connecting via modem. Tell the average person he's going to have to do a 5 MEG download over a modem, and then some sort of installation that might screw up his machine, and he's going to say "Forget it, I'll do without my scrolling stock ticker". Or he'll switch to one that doesn't use Java.

If a good percentage of the users of an OS that constitutes most of the total consumer market will not take the time to download and install JVM, developers are going to assume Java may not be available on a lot of the machines out there. Most developers want to reach the broadest possible audience with their products. So they might decide to pick a different, more "universally" available language to code with. One that can be run on a Windows user's machine without requiring a big download and installation of a virtual machine. Quite possibly a Microsoft language like C# or VB. And since C# is pretty similar to Java, the transition from one to the other might not be that tough.

So yes, MS dropping the bundling of Java is a big deal. Everything they do at the OS level is a big deal. It makes it that much more likely that Java will be a niche language, and that much more likely that something like C# will gain in popularity. Whether that's good or bad will depend on your own viewpoints.

Dave

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