Friday, July 02, 2004

Q&A: Sun's James Gosling on Java tools, woes - Computerworld

Q&A: Sun's James Gosling on Java tools, woes - Computerworld: "[ComputerWorld] Is it your charge to make a lot of money on tools?
[Gosling] For us, the real goal is to make it so that the software ecosystem is as healthy as possible. We don't have to be fabulously cash-positive. We just have to be not fabulously cash-negative, because these tools are enormous. They're tremendous engineering efforts. There are a lot of tools companies that are like three guys in a garage. In the tool world, you just can't compete with a team that small.
[ComputerWorld] Still, despite the fact that Sun created Java, its application server and your commercial tools remain at the bottom of the market-share list.
[Gosling] You've picked a couple that have been in trouble. The app server is doing a lot better. Recent market share data for NetBeans is noticeably better. The app server thing for us was just a Marx Brothers comedy. There was this period where you couldn't buy a company without getting another app server, and then this huge political mess [followed]. We literally had like six [application servers]."

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