In the event, Sun Microsystems Inc’s JavaSoft unit managed to scoop up Apple Computer Inc, Hewlett-Packard Co, IBM Corp, Microsoft Corp, Novell Inc, Santa Cruz Operation Inc, Silicon Graphics Inc and, rather surprisingly given its enterprise bent, Tandem Computers Inc – plus its SunSoft Inc cousin – to announce they will embed Java into their operating systems. Integration of the Java virtual machine and Java class libraries at the operating system level means Java applications will be created and used independently of Web browsers and that browsers will not need their own integrated virtual machines other than for reasons of performance or enhancements. Systems won’t have to support the multiple copies of virtual machines they do currently. Java will turn up embedded in future versions of Mac OS operating system, HP-UX, all IBM operating systems and a summer release of Lotus Notes – Big Blue is also retrofitting Java into Windows 3.1, work which Microsoft isn’t doing – Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 and future Windows and NT releases integrated with ActiveX and a just-in-time compiler, Novell’s next GroupWise client and a future NetWare release, SCO’s 1997 Gemini UnixWare/OpenServer combine, SGI Irix and Solaris. Tandem says it’ll create extensions to support Java in its ServerNet I/O system.
