Sun Microsystems Inc now says its JavaStation network computers will ship in volume in, or very close to, January, according to Steve Tirado, director of Java desktop systems with Sun’s hardware division. Tirado pointed out that that is the same time as the first raft of Lotus’ eSuite Java applications, whose launch Sun was attending yesterday. Sun had two JavaStations on display at the launch, the brick-shaped one and a so-called coffee maker version. The latter was sporting the microSparc IIep and Sun said that design will definitely ship – there have been some doubts in the past. Sun officials alluded to the age-old problems with JavaOS as the main reason for the delay with the machines being produced in volume – they were announced in October 1996. Apparently the current version of JavaOS is not even compliant with the JDK 1.1, according to Sun people present at the Lotus launch, which makes Sun’s present allegations against Microsoft Corp all the more interesting.
