What’s your forecast for Java and Web servers becoming useful on the HP 3000 over the coming year?

That’s a loaded question, because of the uncertainty of the Netscape Server division being sold off to Sun. I would forecast that HP would follow IBM’s lead and officially support Apache for the HP 3000 as the official Web server for the platform.

Although I cannot forecast this — I see more people starting to work with Java/iX. These would be the “early adopters” of the group. As for Java as a whole, as much as I would like to see it in widespread use, until I see a mission-critical business application running successfully under Java, I have to temper my optimism. It’s being used, as I found out recently, with some router control software and other technical applications — but Java has not been a big player yet in business-related, mission-critical applications.

Another area of concern is Sun’s continuing problems with current Java’s JDK. They need to start getting it right so users can have confidence in the language.