[flowerlad]

Remember, Sun needed Netscape to make Java successful. Today Java is a server-side technology, but that's not how it started its life. Java started its life as a technology to build more powerful web pages (using embedded applets). Sun needed Netscape to bundle Java into its browser. So if Netscape wanted to leverage the hype that existed around Java at that time then Sun had to let them.

[alasdair_]

>Java started its life as a technology to build more powerful web pages

I'm pretty sure Java came from the work James Gosling did on Oak, which was mostly used for embedded systems. I remember a lot of the early documentation being OO designs for devices like microwaves and CD players.

[flowerlad]

> I'm pretty sure Java came from the work James Gosling did on Oak, which was mostly used for embedded systems.

Yes, when it was conceived it was indeed intended for embedded systems but when it was released it was intended as a tech for building client-side smarts into web pages.

Java was originally conceived as Sun's response to General Magic's intelligent agent technology. Microsoft's response to General Magic was Microsoft Bob, because they saw General Magic's social interface as a threat to Windows.

[pjmlp]

They also needed Oracle and IBM, their two major partners in the early Java days.