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Ask HN: Time for MS to Move in on Java?

2 points by sausagefeet ↗ HN
Given what has been going on with Oracle and Java, is there any indication that this would be a good time for MS to throw their weight behind Mono or to create their own cross-platform implementation of .Net? Or, is it still more valuable for them to keep people on the MS stack?

4 comments

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rbanffy
It will always be more valuable for them to keep people locked-in to a stack they alone control. That does not preclude them from taking a position on the FUD Oracle and Apache are generating in the Java space.

Microsoft dominance is caused by 25% evil, 5% good product and 70% competitor stupidity.

kls
There is so much distrust for Microsoft, that I think even if they did throw their weight behind Mono they would get very little mind share. I think that the Java replacement will come out of the open source movement. I do not know who it will be or even if it is existing as of yet, but I think that Java will serve as an example to people when selecting the next big language.

There are a lot of interesting languages, unfortunately some of them require the JVM to operate, which binds them to the same restrictions as Java. There are the scripting languages such as Python and node.JS, which while interesting, have a tough road to battle for mind share due to the fact that they are scripting languages. I personally have no issue with scripting languages, but others do and so it will serve as a scarlet letter for those languages being the one.

There are others like Google's go that are open source and available. I do not know if a language such as go will become a dominant language in the foreseeable future, but do believe that it will be a language with similar licensing options and similar freedoms due to what has happened in the Java market.

sausagefeet
I don't think I agree that the next Java will come out of OSS community. I think the reason Java has become what it is has to do with the safety (no matter how illusionary that safety is) of a big company behind it.
kls
Java became what it is today, because of the Microsoft monopoly, people where looking for any alternative platform to develop on, that did not have Microsoft lock-in.

The problem was that you still needed to deliver on Microsoft platforms to get any user base. Java offered a viable solution to that problem at the time because one could develop an application for the UNIX market while still keeping a foot in the Windows market, should the landscape shift.

With more and more server products moving the Microsoft, Java was a way to hedge staying on an alternative platform while still having a quick transition strategy to Microsoft should be required. Those market realities do not exist today and as always developer mind share is key to a language success, I would argue that it's the only key to a language of success.

It has been proven time and time again where the developers go the market follows. All languages that have gained popularity since Java have been open source languages with the exception of Objective-C and the .net languages. The two most dominant web languages PHP and Python are both open source language.