Andreessen: Java situation is pretty grim on the client

By Bob Brown
Network World Fusion, 7/2/98

Burlingame, Calif. - Netscape Communications Corp. - once one of Java's biggest backers - has had a serious change of heart about the technology over the past four or five months, according to company co-founder Marc Andreessen.

[Andreessen] He said Java's failure to do the job on network clients is largely behind Netscape's "abrupt" change in direction regarding the technology.

"The Java situation is pretty grim on the client side right now," said Andreessen, Netscape's executive vice president for products. He made his comments at Enterprise Outlook, a conference designed to bring software start-ups together with investors.

Andreessen said the technology has come up short on performance, cross-platform compatibility and scalability.

One earlier indication that Netscape was losing its enthusiasm for Java on the client was the company's abandonment of the Javagator, a Java browser being crafted in partnership with Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Netscape hasn't totally given up on Java, however. Andreessen has been encouraged by technologies such as JavaScript and dynamic HTML that enable companies to build solid server-side Java programs.

"On the server side, Java is taking off quite quickly," Andreessen said.

He did warn start-ups to be careful given that Sun and others are likely to compete vigorously in this market.

Andreessen also treated audience members to his thoughts on a variety of non-Java topics. Here's a sampling:

He expects all kinds of companies, from car makers to banks, to establish "direct, personalized links over the 'Net to each of their customers." He also expects companies that currently don't compete with one another to become rivals as they try to take advantage of their customer relationships to sell them more and more products and services. For example, once a car maker establishes a direct link to its customers, the company could try to offer those customers everything from insurance to car accessories.
He sees corporate IT departments currently offering rich applications to a small set of internal users. The trend will be for these corporate IT departments to offer broader applications to a big set of external customers.
ISPs that offer a broad set of applications to their customers will find themselves offering a richer set of applications to companies that want to outsource their application management and operations. "The vast majority of companies will outsource [application management] to service providers," he said.
The biggest change yet to come to the Internet will be when end users start using normal voice as their main interface to the 'Net. He expects this will start happening in the next three to five years.
Expect Netscape to continue to buy small companies. But Andreessen noted that more and more of the start-ups he investigates are thin on management teams and solid product ideas.