SAN MATEO (11-11-95) - Sun Microsystems Inc. is exploring a new operating system initiative that could ultimately challenge Microsoft Corp.'s dominance of the desktop by leveraging the Java programming language.
To accomplish this goal, Sun is researching a microkernel-based operating system that promises to add intelligence to a new generation of low-cost Internet terminals due out from a variety of hardware vendors in 1996.
Initially, these Internet terminals, priced starting at about $500, will rely heavily on servers for processing. By employing a microkernel- based operating system, Sun hopes hardware vendors will be capable of building devices that have local processing capabilities equivalent to a PC.
The new OS would enable Internet devices to download and run Java applications that would make use of a Java run-time engine on the client- to-execute tasks without having to boot an OS such as Windows.
Eric Schmidt, Sun's chief technology officer, said the microkernel project, outlined last week during a Java Day conference in Mountain View, Calif., is a significant Sun goal, but the project is still in the early stages of research.
Although it may take Sun two years to develop a microkernel for its existing Java run-time engine, industry analysts said Sun could challenge Microsoft by using Java -- a network-centric derivative of C++ -- to build software ranging from OSes to client/server applications.
"Java is making great strides becoming the API of the Internet," said Paul Cubbage of Dataquest Inc., in San Jose, Calif. "The significance is that there's nothing more important to Microsoft than owning APIs."
But whether Sun can beat Microsoft at its own game is questionable.
"The theoretical threat is there. The practical threat is not," said Jesse Berst, editorial director of Windows Watcher, an industry newsletter based in Redmond, Wash. "Cross-platform [Java applications] would be a really good argument if the percentage [of PCs] were 50 percent Windows, 30 percent Macintosh, and 10 percent Unix. In terms of corporate applications, most are Windows based."
For Sun's strategy to work, the company must line up allies to make Java a de facto standard. Last week it signed up Borland International Inc. and Spyglass Inc., and it will add Starfish Software Inc. to its ranks this week at Comdex.
Borland plans a multiplatform visual development environment for Java, code-named Latte, in the first half of 1996. Spyglass will incorporate support for Java's run-time engine into its Enhanced Mosaic Web browser.
Starfish will announce it has licensed Java for its Sidekick scheduling program.
Microsoft expects to counter Java using Visual C++ and its Blackbird development tool for the Microsoft Network and the Internet. Currently in beta testing, Blackbird uses OLE controls to build Java-like applets, but an Internet version of Blackbird is not expected until the second half of 1996.
Meanwhile, Sun's Java development environment should be available in the first quarter, and as more developers fall in line behind Java, optimism among users is high.
"We're looking at Java to enable new applications," said Aron Dutta, a principal at Booz-Allen and Hamilton Inc., a New York consultancy. "The richness in a distributed environment is key. I don't need to worry about whether we work on Windows, Mac, Sun, or DEC."
Additional reporting by Elinor Mills, IDG News Service.
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