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JavaSoft wrestles with success

Sun's newest company scrambles to hire staff, switch locations, release products, cut deals, create a business plan

By Erica Liederman, JavaWorld.com, 04/15/96

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JavaSoft, Sun Microsystem's latest addition to its growing constellation of operating companies, recently moved to new offices in Cupertino, CA. The new digs are located directly across the street from Apple Computer's R&D complex. And it must be noted that what would otherwise seem a purely mundane space-and-economics-driven change of locus was made all the more intriguing by the choice of address: JavaSoft has taken up residence in the building on De Anza Boulevard that once housed the main offices of the short-lived Taligent Inc.

For those whose memories are only as long as the lifespan of some recent Solaris releases, Taligent Inc. was for a very brief time a corporate entity that had the dubious distinction of being -- simultaneously -- a subsidiary of Apple Computer and IBM. The mission of this unholy alliance was to build an object-oriented operating system that would function equally well on IBM DOS-compatible and Apple/Macintosh operating systems. The miraculous new OS would be networked, multi-platform, and international. But as often happens to the best laid plans and most noble of intentions... well, suffice to say the corporation evaporated, the building was left vacant, and is now occupied by Sun's newest corporate venture.

JavaSoft: Mission and metaculture

JavaSoft's stated mission since its inception has been "...to develop, market, and support the Java technology and products based on it ... JavaSoft develops applications, tools and systems platforms to further enhance Java as the programming standard for complex networks such as the Internet and corporate intranets." When it comes to an actual business plan, however, JavaSoft has yet to demonstrate how giving away the golden eggs of Java source code will enable it to become a profitable operating unit.

Jon Kannegaard, JavaSoft's chief operating officer, concurred that it is hard to imagine how a business might thrive by giving away the product.

"Amazing, isn't it? But profitability in the short term isn't what we're after," Kannegaard said. "What we're after is ubiquity -- what we want to have happen is to get an entirely new set of players competing above and below the line. The question of what the new applications are and who will develop them still remains." Kannegaard was quick to point out that Sun is not now and does not intend to give Java away to commercial users to incorporate in their products. The published rate for licensing Java source code for commercial use is a 25,000 up-front fee plus per copy. This amount, however, is still considered below Sun's cost, which means the company will lose money in the licensing business for the foreseeable future. But that's not what the corporate strategy is about.

For the immediate future, JavaSoft plans to get the Java platform -- the core components that enable software developers to build, compile and test Java applications, including the Java Applet Viewer; the Java Compiler; a prototype debugger; the Java Virtual Machine (JVM); and class libraries for graphics, audio, animation and networking -- licensed to as many big companies for inclusion in their products as possible.

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