Sam's Rant: Future of the Computing Experience

Java, and technologies similar to it in scope and function, are the next step in the constantly evolving graphical user interface. Not long ago many would have said that the fundamental interface structure and representations of operating systems would not change for many years to come. In a short year Java shocked the world into rethinking the metaphors that people use to communicate to and through their computers.

Central to this change is the adoption and acceptance of the browser model. Mosaic and its descendent Netscape Navigator took the internet by storm. Not long before these "killer-apps" hit the net I was using gopher, WAIS, and FTP. Now those untilities, estranged by the average user, are now abandoned by the power-user for all but the most arcane uses. Many people's computers have become simply staging areas for their internet browser. When you only use one application, why have an operating system?

That last conclusion is the cause of the 90 degree turn of Microsoft corporation to embrace the Net and the thin-client technology it advances. That a behemoth such as Microsoft would turn headlong into a battle with a much smaller companies, such as Netscape and Sun, and still appear to be struggling to take control of the market says a lot for the power of the techno-geeks that have ruled on the Internet since it's inception. Will Microsoft be able to out-sneak and out-bribe Netscape and virtually force its customers into using Internet Explorer? Almost assuredly. The vast majority of internet users are now sheep, not the nerdy leaders on the bleeding-edge of technology whose legacy is the Net.

Sam Pullara
spullara@suba.com

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