It appears that Suns Scott McNealy and Googles Eric Schmidt could not dot the is and cross the ts on a major technology sharing agreement. Or did they not want to reveal all ?
The expectation is that Google and Sun would announce a joint venture to bring Suns Star Office to the Web. Google certainly has the Ajax smarts to help do this (but Sun are no slouches as Ajax is planned to be a part of Suns Jjava Studio Creator and other software). But the big press conference only announced including the Google desktop in Suns Java runtime for PCs. Hardly the stuff of major press conferences with the two CEOs present.
So here are some of the possibilties:
1)Sun and Google are at a sticking point on what gets shared and who profits how;
2)Suns Star Office may be encumbered from “sharing” with its previous deal with openOffice.org and others;
3)Sun and Google may not want to share with the public and Microsoft how advanced their plans to create a Web based Office counterpart really is it gives Microsoft too much time to respond;
4)But the two parties do want to confirm that they are co-operating for various other third part purposes;
5) The presumption is that this would be AJAX based and therefore able to circumvent the continuing pollution of JVMs on IE by Microsoft who are able to distribute an obsolete JVM with IE and Windows to at least 2007. It may not be Ajax or Ajax only – and this may be due to:
a)technology/implementation disputes/disagreements between Sun and Google;
b)feasibility studies as to how to actually co-operate most effectively are not done;
c)never reveal to Microsoft how you are going to do something until you are actually doing it.
Let me say that I have been using Star Office/Open Office for the past two years and recommend it to all my clients. A Web based version might tip the balance towards widespread acceptance given the high cost of Office – which is truly a cash cow. But belatedly, Microsft is investing bigtime in Office and extending its capabilities( but still apparently backing off changing the core word processing, spreadsheet, and presentations engines – yes the interface is changing, but not the core functionality of each). In sum, who said hohum about Office Suites ? And what is IBM up to in the Workplace ? Finally – No stone is being unturned for PC software revenues …. or redirection of revenues.
(c)JBSurveyer 2005