Mad Hatter Preview - Sun Java Desktop System Demo

bengine writes "According to this article, Sun Java Desktop System is a good product overall, built on the well-established SuSE system with integration from Sun. It delivers what appears to be a very useful desktop OS and it has the chance to make a dent in the Windows monopoly. But Sun will have to differentiate itself on its quality, hardware, services and reputation. That means a lot of hard work, so the key questions will be how well they execute their strategy, how much public acceptance they gain and what message they convey through public venues." This makes a good companion to the earlier story linking to Mad Hatter screenshots.

Comments

I wouldn't worry about making a dent

[tommasz]

This is clever, and it's nice to see that it works, but Java? Most people's experience with Java is waiting forever for some applet to load on a web page only to discover it tells them what time it is. I can't see how they're going to convince Joe Average that this is somehow a competitive advantage, no matter how smoothly integrated the entire package is.

Re:I wouldn't worry about making a dent

[bersl2]

Most people's experience with Java is waiting forever for some applet to load on a web page only to discover it tells them what time it is.

Most people probably couldn't match Java's issues with the name. To them, it's just another faceless technology.

Also, these are the same people who put up with endless crashes and reboots in the Win9x series...

Re:I wouldn't worry about making a dent

[PhantomBlot]

Whether or not Mad Hatter (Java Desktop System) makes a dent in the Windows install base is all a matter of how Sun approaches the who and the how of selling this. For the most part, the target would likely be Enterprise customers and not Joe Average (although Joe Average could buy one if he really wanted to I'm sure). If Sun goes after these customers with an agressive pricing strategy and with sound technical facts to back them up (easy to come by with the recent barrage of attacks on Windows machines), then perhaps they could do fairly well. So far the plan seems good. The platform itself is for the x86 although you can get all of the pieces for SPARC Solaris. Also, it is based on GNOME and all of those nice freebies out there (it is NOT a bunch of Java Apps so performance concerns are minimal). The licensing fees are astronomically low due to the fact that everything is based on an Open Source project. Really, this is why Joe Average is probably not the target audience since he could download all of this stuff for free and install it but the Enterprise customer is compelled to have a service agreement incase something goes wrong (which is largely why StarOffice manages to coexist with OpenOffice). Anyway, could it make a dent? If executed correctly, absolutely. Many of you out there are probably the same as me and have had no problem converting friends and families to apps like Mozilla from IE based on the simple fact that Mozilla is better. This is much the same...Sun just has to work a little harder to convince there audience because Windows is Windows...and that is sure to be a huge sticking point for most customers.

WTF is this SUN Java name?

[pirhana]

I find the name "SUN Java Desktop" really ridiculous. Its as stupid as calling Toyota Land Cruiser "SONY SUV" for the Sony sterio system used in it.

Re:Can we get away from the "Start Button"??

[WWWWolf]

Yeah. I've always found that the Window Maker way - getting the program menu by right-clicking desktop wherever you like - is the best. In fact, I installed LiteStep on Win98 just for that. (I don't care if alternative shells in Windows are only 99.9% convenient - I want my start menu placed where God intended...)

Another thing which I found pretty neat was the Indigo Magic Desktop's "Icon Catalog" application - small groups of icons arranged in a small window, with a tab row on the bottom for categories. Hopefully 5dwm will get along to reimplement it eventually =)