The 2004 JavaOne conference opened today with the standard formula of industry keynotes. Documentary film maker and local TV personality Jonathan Karsh opened the show as the emcee. The 8th annual Java developer show began in front of a backdrop of scrolling Java (which had code for catching exceptions), Sun president & COO Jonathan I. Schwartz., started out by delivering the standard Sun executive speech touting the explosion of Java on handsets, servers, and developers writing Java.
From Sun's perspective, the exciting news of the day seemed to be a new desktop window manager, a VB-like development tool, Java on a BMW and new version number scheme for the Java platform.
Like former Sun executives Alan Baratz, George Paolini, and Richard Green in years past, Sun's president and COO recited the usual Sun bromides of "Everything and Everyone Connected to the Network," and Joy's Law, also rendered as "Innovation Happens Elsewhere."
What set Schwartz apart was that, unlike Sun executives in the past, he did his own demos, for the most part. The first demo was a wireless pulse monitor that transmitted to a Java application running on his cell phone. While not entirely useful, this demo could hint at some interesting cardiac telematics applications.
Curiously, many of the rest of the demos displayed functionality that has existed on other platforms for years. The second demo was a lighthearted one showing a version of the Instant Messaging client on the Sun Java Desktop. Interestingly, this is something that has been available on Windows for quite a while.
The next demo was a hardware demo, literally. A BMW was driven onto the stage and the next-generation information console was demoed. The demo showed navigation, entertainment, climate control, and a host of other features. All of which was written in Java. Dr. Roland Busch, CEO of Siemens VDO Automotive (Infotainment Solutions) mentioned that their "Infotainment" solutions had recently won a performance award from Automotive Magazine, scoring a 20 out of 20. This was mentioned to dispel the notion that Java is not performant, a criticism that has dogged Java since its launch.
The overall view of the demos was somewhat curious given that most of Sun's money comes from servers. In essence, the keynotes were all about areas in which Sun garners very little revenue.
Notably absent was any discussion of Linux, underscoring Sun's move away from its previous Linux announcement and towards its homegrown Solaris x86. Microsoft's Longhorn Beta was shown, displaying several Java GUI demos.
Next up was the new EVP of Sun software, and former chief marketing officer, John Loiacono. Much of his presentation was spent hyping the tortuously named Sun Java Studio Creator, Sun's attempt to bring Java coding to the masses. The targeting of Visual Basic was mentioned several times. Sun is offering Creator for free, and subscriptions for a nominal fee.
Loiacono then announced "Project Kitty Hawk," which seems to be some kind of product announcement around Service-Oriented Architectures. One hint that no product was forthcoming in the short term was that the announcement included a reference to an "assessment service," which is a professional services offering usually made in lieu of product availability.
