Sun Microsystems Inc’s investment yesterday in Liberate Technologies Inc, nee Network Computer Inc reminded us of Sun CEO Scott McNealy’s criticism of Microsoft Corp’s recent investment in AT&T Corp and subsequent agreement to use Windows CE.
At the time of that announcement he said it was an example of Microsoft buying into a market, saying, the only way they [Microsoft] can get anyone to use their stuff is to pay them to use it, referring to the likelihood that AT&T will use Microsoft’s CE operating systems in the cable set-top boxes used in its cable systems.
Lo and behold, Sun invests in Liberate and CEO Mitch Kertzman announced that from now on, Java, Personal Java and Jini would be a central part of his company’s software development. Liberate’s NC Navigator is described as Java-enabled but until now, Java has not been central to Liberate’s work. Future versions of TV Navigator and the embedded eNavigator product will support PersonalJava, according to Liberate.
