> See, I don't get it. Microsoft bundle a bunch of stuff with their OS,
> and the anti-MS camp complain about Microsoft's so-called monopoly (or
> monopolistic practices, which aren't the same thing). And 
> then Microsoft
> don't bundle some stuff with their OS, and the exact same people start
> complaining again... about what exactly? You can still download Java
> onto Windows easily, it's no big deal, what is the problem here? 

Any time a vendor with such a huge market share includes or excludes
something from their OS, it has a huge impact.  IF MS had stopped including
Internet Explorer in their OS, and the user had to go download something to
get a web browser, it's likely Navigator might still have a good chunk of
the browser market.  But MS made it easy for users to get to a browser
(bundling IE), and most users will take the path of least resistance.

A JVM download is what .... 5+ MEG?  Most of the world is still connecting
via modem.  Tell the average person he's going to have to do a 5 MEG
download over a modem, and then some sort of installation that might screw
up his machine, and he's going to say "Forget it, I'll do without my
scrolling stock ticker".  Or he'll switch to one that doesn't use Java.

If a good percentage of the users of an OS that constitutes most of the
total consumer market will not take the time to download and install JVM,
developers are going to assume Java may not be available on a lot of the
machines out there.  Most developers want to reach the broadest possible
audience with their products.  So they might decide to pick a different,
more "universally" available language to code with.  One that can be run on
a Windows user's machine without requiring a big download and installation
of a virtual machine.  Quite possibly a Microsoft language like C# or VB.
And since C# is pretty similar to Java, the transition from one to the other
might not be that tough.

So yes, MS dropping the bundling of Java is a big deal.  Everything they do
at the OS level is a big deal.  It makes it that much more likely that Java
will be a niche language, and that much more likely that something like C#
will gain in popularity.  Whether that's good or bad will depend on your own
viewpoints.

Dave
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