Future of Search

Java creator James Gosling points out that there are 150 million Java-enabled mobile phones. Although other promising markets exist for the technology, "the one that continues to grow like a weed is cell phones," he says. 

Java is the programming language originally designed by Sun Microsystems for use in the distributed environment of the Internet. It was designed to have the “look and feel� of the C++ language and uses the object oriented programming model. Java is supposed to work across all servers that run the Java Virtual Machine, enabling programmers to create “write once, run anywhere� applications. It can also be used to build small application modules, or “applets� for use as part of Web pages.  

Despite rumors of its demise, Java is alive and well on the Windows desktop, according to Microsoft and Sun Microsystems. Representatives with both companies confirmed that the two companies have extended security patch support for Microsoft's version of the Java Virtual Machine (MSJVM) until December 31, 2007.

Another important challenge in this era in which we will be surrounded by billions of increasingly intelligent devices, all communicating with one another, is the obvious need to simplify and quicken the process of application development, deployment and maintenance. In this regard, Java appears postured to play an increasingly significant role.  

Although Java seems to failed to hit the target for which it was first developed (whish was to serve as an embedded operating system within smart devices), Java ended up providing a convenient means to enable moving applications around among computing devices, propelled to this position by the emergence made in a dramatically and spectacular way, of the Web. 

Today Java is showing promise in the role of providing a device independent application platform, running on top of the embedded operating system. In this case, rather than serving as the operating system itself, Java provides the benefit of masking the aspect of the underlying device and providing an array of services beyond those offered by the embedded operating systems.   

In the context of an exponential proliferation of smart devices, Java is emerging as a handy way to minimize device specific development and to allow developers to focus on the truly unique aspects of their projects; increasingly, Java will provide the means to obtain functionality like Web browsers, GUIs, handwriting and speech recognition, protocol stacks, wireless communications, multimedia support, database management and a wide range of remote services. 

In the new, exciting post PC world of pervasive computing, we will be surrounded by an exponentially growing number and variety of intelligent, interconnected devices. But the challenges associated with developing, maintaining and supporting increasingly sophisticated system architectures and protocols also will grow exponentially.

In the context of an exponential proliferation of smart devices, Java is emerging as a handy way to minimize device-specific development and to allow developers to focus on the truly unique aspects of their projects. Increasingly, Java is providing a means to obtain functionality like GUIs, Web browsers, protocol stacks, handwriting and speech recognition, wireless communications, multimedia support, database management and a wide range of remote services.  

Looked at from this perspective, the emerging popularity of Java technology as a well-supported application and services framework for devices, offers an enticing possibility of ready-to-use components that can be used along with embedded Linux, to speed and simplify device development and to enhance the capabilities of the end product.  

Sun Microsystems announced the 11/13/2006 that it has begun the process of releasing its Java Platform Standard Edition (Java SE) and a build able implementation of its Java Platform Micro Edition (Java ME) as free software under the open-source GNU General Public License.  

Microsoft is an awesome company when is has competition. .Net is a great example of this. .Net kicks Java with a set of spiked golf cleats “where it counts� on just about everything. Microsoft needs a competition from Java to keep the honest. .Net would not have happened if not for Java, most likely. And the pressure from Java keeps Microsoft driving hard for improvements. As we know that Java can show itself to be a superior system, many programmers will consider that they will see Java the best that it can be.   

Java Platform, Standard Edition (also known as Java 2 Platform) lets the user develop and deploy Java applications on desktops and servers, as well as todays demanding Embedded and Read-Time environments. Java SE will include classes that support the development of Java Web Services and provide the foundation for Java Platform, enterprise Edition (Java EE). James Gosling, often called the father of Java technology, announced JavaOne in June 2006. It was not a question of “whether� but a question of “how� Sun would open source Java platform. “We want better conversations with the developer community, a more collaborative relationship.  

We want to have better relationships with many of the Linux distributions, and a lot of the Linux distributions are very sensitive about precisely which license one uses. We want to have relationships with the open-source community, which leads to better distribution and makes it easy for people to collaborate with us to evolve the platform, to use it in even more interesting ways and in more interesting areas.� said James Gosling. The source code is being open-sourced, but the process of defining the specifications is still the Java Community Process. In addition, there are massive test suites, and Sun will do an immense amount of testing. They expect that people who care about reliability and compatibility with the specifications will use the new version soon. 

From a financial point of view, the Java platform has been free to all of these enterprises and such since day one. And so from that point of view, this really isn’t going to have an effect on Sun’s financial situation. Java is able to evolve faster, although they are currently evolving pretty darned fast. Sun is always interested in people using Java technology in different ways and in different kinds of environments. Certainly, being pen source makes it much possible. Java platform will be available for a very long time.