Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.
Re: Jini Jini Jini
Author: pholmes@ucsd.edu Posted: 1/26/1999; 10:51:30 PM Topic: Jini Jini Jini (Zzzzz?) Msg #: 2528 (In response to 2482) Prev/Next: 2527 / 2529
Java was always meant to be Jini.Java was originally developed for embedded devices - not the internet. Its a lightweight VM, abstracted from hardware, network oriented. This is really what Java was born to be, not a browser applet.
Jini is a far more appropriate application for Java then anything else.
A Java VM chip will be far more cost effective than the smallest x86/Linux/Perl matchbox computer. You can't put a PC in every toaster, but you can put a Java VM in one.
The Java in Jini *IS* more than just a language!
Sure you could build a similar network with other approaches, but what out there is better than Java right now? Java may not be perfect but its the best alternative. Its an effective implimentation. What else is available today that could propose to do what Jini does?
The other side of the process is political and strategic - it sounds like Sun is doing a decent job here of creating momentum. The recent battles of DVD, HDTV, Digital Cellular all strike me as being more fierce than battles of the past in terms of getting technology to consumers, even more intense than VHS vs Betamax.
However I don't think that Sun is being open enough. Sun should learn a little from the consumer electronics world where there may be very hard battles over standards, but a standard (ie DVD) is proposed by more than one company in cooperation, and in the end there is usually compromise and consensus among the major manufacturers.
I still think distributed appliance based computing could be the most exciting development in computing in the next 10 years.
-Preston
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