Today I was reading about Bill Joy in Outliers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Joy
I wonder about the future of MySQL.
Today Was The Last Day of Sun Microsystems
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Re: Today Was The Last Day of Sun Microsystems
#32Sun is gone, but they left behind an amazing collection of Open Source Software: Java, OpenSolaris, OpenSPARC, VirtualBox. I'll miss Sun and the amazing people I knew there.
Java never felt "new" to me: rather unnecessarily bloated and slow and not offering enough high-level language features to justify the performance penalty over C. Managing memory in C never felt "hard" and when I needed something for quick hacking I could use VB and/or Delphi. Funny, but in many ways Visual Basic has been far superior RAD tool for enterprise SQL pushing. Yes, it was garbage-collected, ran in its own…
I think you've got some causality messed up. I don't see how Java could have "dumbed down our profession." I think instead, schools turning vocational reduced the caliber of graduates while simultaneously pumping out large quantities of them.
It could have happened with just about any language. Java just happened to have a lot of things going for it that made it fit perfectly into the mold those vocational schools were looking for: simple memory management, platform abstraction, included libraries, and a large marketing effort creating jobs.
I remember when I was excited about Java. I was writing software for multiple platforms, and the thought of a write once, run everywhere was awesome. I felt so raped when it turned out to be a lie. I was so young and naive. :)
Now, I wish Java had never belched from the bowels of that leviathan. Even worse, I'm working at a game company, building an MMO, and using Java. Egads!
Re: Today Was The Last Day of Sun Microsystems
#33can't help but feel down. i really enjoy developing in java :(
There is no way Java is going anywhere. We can actually hope that Oracle loses some interest in Java, thereby loosening their grip and letting the language evolve.
But I doubt it.
Re: Today Was The Last Day of Sun Microsystems
#34Sun is gone, but they left behind an amazing collection of Open Source Software: Java, OpenSolaris, OpenSPARC, VirtualBox. I'll miss Sun and the amazing people I knew there.
Java never felt "new" to me: rather unnecessarily bloated and slow and not offering enough high-level language features to justify the performance penalty over C. Managing memory in C never felt "hard" and when I needed something for quick hacking I could use VB and/or Delphi. Funny, but in many ways Visual Basic has been far superior RAD tool for enterprise SQL pushing. Yes, it was garbage-collected, ran in its own…
>before Java lots of folks couldn't use them because computers weren't powerful enough, but now they aren't using them because schools stopped teaching and switched to vocational java training.
Talk about self-denial. Java is definitely not the one to blame for lack of adoption of Lisp, Smalltalk, etc. Many other languages showed that it is possible to thrive despite perceived Java domination (I think that Java is not dominant, neither on desktop nor in web space, maybe in enterprise, but I wouldn't bet my money on it). And, after all, who cares about Java - use the tools you are proficient with, I know I do. Don't bitch about stuff you don't use.
Re: Today Was The Last Day of Sun Microsystems
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Bill Joy was from Berkeley though.
It was two Stanford guys and one Berkeley dude. 2 Votes for Stanford Univ Networks 1 Vote for UC Berekeley Networks Bill Joy: "$%^&! I want it to be called UCBN! It has a better ring to it! No?"
Or given Sun's history with big endian: NBCU!
Re: Today Was The Last Day of Sun Microsystems
#36This was the real success of Linux. It didn't take over the consumer desktop market, but it sure decimated the need for specialty servers and proprietary server operating systems. Once Sun was forced to compete in the commodity hardware market, it was over.
Still they outlasted, DEC, SGI, Pyramid and all the other minicomputer/workstation makers.
Yes, Sun and Digital (DEC) got killed by the same thing - Clayton Christensen on Digital (not Sun):
Every disruption has three components to it: a technological enabler, a business model innovation and a new commercial ecosystem. In computing, the technological enabler of disruption in computing was the microprocessor. It so simplified the design of a computer that Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs could just slap one together in a garage. It transformed the industry’s fundamental technological problem—the design of a computer—from a problem that took hundreds of people several years to solve into one that was much simpler.
Then that simplifying technology had to be married with a business model that could take the technology into the market in a cost-effective and convenient way. Digital Equipment Corp. had microprocessor technology, but its business model could not profitably sell a computer for less than $50,000. The technology trapped in a high-cost business model had no impact on the world, and in fact, the world ultimately killed Digital. But IBM Corp., with the very same processors at its disposal, set up a different business model in Florida that could make money at a $2,000 price point and 20% gross margins—and changed the world. It’s a combination of the technology and business model that makes formerly complicated, expensive, inaccessible things affordable and accessible.
http://74.125.153.132/search?q=cache%3Asloanreview.mit.edu%2...
Re: Today Was The Last Day of Sun Microsystems
#37can't help but feel down. i really enjoy developing in java :(
Java was the reason for Oracle to take over Sun (OK, also the hardware). Since Oracles commitment to open source is, "yeah, sure, Oracle will run on Linux. ONE version of ONE distro, but, yeah, Linux", this is more likely than ever to trigger a community-fork of Java, backed by IBM.
Re: Today Was The Last Day of Sun Microsystems
#38Sun is gone, but they left behind an amazing collection of Open Source Software: Java, OpenSolaris, OpenSPARC, VirtualBox. I'll miss Sun and the amazing people I knew there.
Tcl and Tk went through Sun too, and picked up a lot of improvements along the way, and then got spit out in favor of Java as the only GUI platform.
Re: Today Was The Last Day of Sun Microsystems
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
You think Java will be discontinued?
I doubt it because IBM has too much skin in the game. Few people are aware, but IBM produces its own JDK: https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/java/jdk/
For that matter, the Apache Software Foundation has a Java implementation called 'Harmony', although I'm not sure they're allowed to call it Java.
Re: Today Was The Last Day of Sun Microsystems
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
Still they outlasted, DEC, SGI, Pyramid and all the other minicomputer/workstation makers.
Yes, Sun and Digital (DEC) got killed by the same thing - Clayton Christensen on Digital (not Sun): Every disruption has three components to it: a technological enabler, a business model innovation and a new commercial ecosystem. In computing, the technological enabler of disruption in computing was the microprocessor. It so simplified the design of a computer that Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs could just slap one tog…
"It’s a combination of the technology and business model that makes formerly complicated, expensive, inaccessible things affordable and accessible."
this reminds me of google. they are essentially providing what used to be complicated and expensive tools at a much lower cost.