Sun Gives Up on Java Tools

According to a story published yesterday evening on the ZDNet Web site, Sun Microsystems, Inc. is going to drop Java Workshop and Java Studio. Instead, the article says, they are shopping for an outside company that produces and supports Java tools. NetBeans is mentioned as a possible acquisition, but that's only a rumor at this point.

Comments

Makes sense.

[dkh2]

Sun has a clue that Microsoft hasn't. If you're good at developing a language you should do that. If you're good at developing tools you should do that instead. Go with your strength and not what you dream of your strength being. (Unfortunately, it looks like Microsoft's strength is in bullying the competition in all arenas.)

Just as Microsoft got it's true start by developing BASIC (read your history kiddies, that's where Billion-dollar Bill got started), Sun developed Java from the ground up and should stick with the language development aspects of Java. Sun is wise to contract out or otherwise semi-divest themselves of the development of tools for Java.

Additionally, while some would argue that only the people who truly know Java from the inside out, from the ground up, would know how to build the best tools... I don't see the masses beating down doors for the Microsoft development tools. In fact, a fresh set of eyes that is NOT completely steeped in the language development hurdles works without the encumberance of that knowledge. They work on the language in it's existing state of development.

As I heard Fats Waller (Jazz/Blues LEGEND) say in an interview once: "Be what you is."

D. Keith Higgs
CWRU. Kelvin Smith Library