[clug] Why isn't Java popular on the Linux Desktop? [SEC=PERSONAL]

[Hugh Fisher]

Francis Markham wrote:
> Actually, OpenOffice.org isn't a good datapoint for this.
> OpenOffice.Org is based on the StarOffice code-base.  The integrated
> StarOffice suite, written in C++, was created in 1994 when Java was
> still called Oak and not publicly available.  Sun purchased StarOffice
> in 1999, apparently because it was cheaper for them to purchase the
> rights to StarOffice and its developers than it was to license MS
> Office for internal use at Sun.  In any case, much of the C++ code
> base was open sourced and became OO.org, and has seemingly remained a
> relatively low priority for Sun ever since.  Re-writing the whole
> office suite in Java would be a monumental waste of already scarce
> resources.

IIRC, in the late 90s when the Java hype was in full swing
Netscape announced they were going to rewrite Navigator in
Java, and Corel announced they were going to rewrite their
application suite in Java, including WordPerfect. Neither
project ever finished, or even got to beta.

Java the language and Java the virtual machine are useful
for education and research, and the Java web SDK seems to
be useful for servers. As a development tool for end-user
applications - desktop or web - Java has crashed and
burned.

My suggestion is that the attempt at cross platform lowest
common denominator design played a big part. Mac owners
want apps that look like othe Mac apps and take advantage
of MacOS capabilities such as QuickTime; MS Windows owners
want apps that know about COM; Linux owners want apps that
know about DBUS/Gstreamer/etc. Java apps ended up pleasing
nobody.

	cheers,
	Hugh