Advance and Be Mechanized

So what do you think of when you hear "Java"? (I added the "technology" part to differentiate from the beverage). Well, I think of "enterprise programming", like most people in IT, I guess.

Now what does Sun say about Java? If we go to Java's home site we get a page with the tag in the title: "Hot Games, Cool Apps", and by looking at the page we'd agree; after all it's all games except for one box dedicated to OpenOffice.

This is explained in the What is Java? page:

Java allows you to play online games, chat with people around the world, calculate your mortgage interest, and view images in 3D.

So according to Sun it's all about games. And it's all about applets:

These applications, written in the Java programming language and access from your browse, are called "applets"

And more games:

After you download Java, visit java.com to find the latest Java games, software, and multimedia players.

Err... what?

Nobody seems to know (OK, I don't know) where Sun is headed or what they really are (hardware company? software company?). Remember the "We are the dot in the .com"?, what the hell did that mean?, a dot is like a small thing right? I mean, at least you could be the "com" in the .com.

But now after a dozen years or so of Java they had a PR idea: they changed their NASDAQ ticket from SUN to JAVA. Aah, now it's all clear to me...