Sponsored Links
Java and ActiveX
Java wins on the Internet, but the intranet rules
- Feedback
- Discuss
Page 2 of 3
ActiveX has made its mark as the heir of OCX, one of the world's most popular components for implementing business logic. Java has been most successful as an applet-building language. Both Microsoft and JavaSoft have been active in filling in the holes in their visions. Microsoft has been getting Java tools to market, and making sure Java applets can execute in its browsers as easily as ActiveX components. JavaSoft has announced Java Beans as its attempt at beating ActiveX in building components. Microsoft has turned to standards organizations in an attempt to put a more pleasing face on its very valuable monopoly. While Microsoft pushes DCOM as a solution to distributed computing, Netscape has licensed Java-based Internet Inter-ORB Protocol software from Visigenics as a standard component for its browsers.
The Internet
Whatever the connotations of the words themselves, Java and ActiveX will be major components in distributed computing. Picking a winner in the Internet is easy; it's Java. Both technologies have their strengths and weaknesses, but the major factor leading to Java's Internet dominance will be its most elemental one: cross-platform execution. The defining characteristic of the Internet is the impossibility of mandating a standard client environment. Different browsers, operating systems, and hardware will be in use. Applications will need to execute on Netscape and Microsoft browsers as well as on a variety of computers and Internet appliances. Software developers recognize this fact and are moving rapidy to Java as the best environment for heterogeneous computing.In late July, Microsoft announced its intention to transfer ownership and future development of some portion of its ActiveX technology (especially DCOM) to an outside, but as yet unnamed, standards group. This move may ultimately lead to a heterogeneous definition of ActiveX. Even if this comes about, however, Java has a technical lead and enough market momentum that it will be hard to beat in the Internet
The intranet
The intranet is where the action is, and here there is no obvious winner. Behind the firewall, corporations can mandate something close to a homogeneous computing environment. In fact, many of them already have. Windows clients are by far the preferred choice on corporate desktops, while Windows NT, Unix, and IBM dominate on servers. Corporations have made a tremendous investment in desktop and client/server software and they expect to reuse it in their intranets. Most of the desktop content and a growing percentage of the server content is already Windows-based. This gives ActiveX a significant lead on the intranet client.The first promise of ActiveX is that it will let developers publish new and existing OLE content in browsers, or more specifically, in Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Live Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, and other popular desktop formats will be available through Internet Explorer. ActiveX's other major promise is that it will provide an easy migration path for existing business logic conforming to the existing OCX API. When one considers the large body of OCXes written in Visual Basic or C++ that exist in many companies, and the large base of corporate developers conversant in these languages, this is a major advantage for any beleaguered IS staff.
- Feedback
Resources
- For a discussion of the Java/ActiveX "collaboration," see the article Opening the ActiveX files in the September issue of NetscapeWorld.
- For the story on NCR's use of ActiveX in its products, see NCR adds ActiveX capabilities to TOP END in the September issue of NetscapeWorld.
- SunWorld Online's current issue features a story on Java versus ActiveX.
About Us | Advertise | Contact Us | Terms of Service/Privacy
Copyright, 2006-2008 Network World, Inc. All rights reserved.