Java和.Net：网络服务谁主沉浮？

TRYIT

All of the major technology vendors have a Web services initiative -- Microsoft with its .Net strategy, Sun with SunOne, and IBM with WebSphere. These giants are currently battling over the standards that will govern exactly how programs written to work on one Web services platform will talk to other programs. Since Web services will involve different programs from different developers zapping data and code to many different users, the complexity of this standards war can get overwhelming. Yet that's why software development tools like VS.Net and IBM's open-source, Java-based Eclipse are so crucial -- they'll determine whose server software is more Web services-friendly. In other words, the race is on to determine who will create the most popular operating system for the future of network-based software.

The conflicts may get even uglier. Some companies have argued that their technical contributions to standards groups should be patentable and that they should be able to receive royalties on those patents. The goal is to co-opt and control the market for Web services even before it leaves the starting gate.

Yet even if every tech company sat down tomorrow and agreed on the basic standards, it would still be difficult to sell Web services initiatives to big companies. For one thing, Web services systems are valuable only to the extent that existing software and data can take advantage of them. (Remember network effects?) But most of the old, legacy technology already in place at many companies can't do that easily. In the enterprise environment, most of the applications need to be retrofitted to make them Web services-capable. What about the $10 trillion spent on IT during the last decade?

A second problem is that, for obvious security and reliability reasons, many companies are extremely cautious about swapping data and software code with virtual strangers across a network. For this reason, Web services will probably roll out in phases, beginning with internal data-sharing projects that remain within the confines of individual companies, and then slowly expanding from there.

But those issues of trust lie further down the road -- probably years away. Right now the struggle is concentrated around the standards bodies and software developers who will ultimately define the Web services playing field. It's a geeky, behind-the-scenes battle. Yet it's important, because the outcome is likely to determine whether today's tech giants will be the same ones stomping around tomorrow.

Tom Zhang

还是学好一门技术吧，类似的讨论太多了，就烂了，随便你精通Java亦或C#，都很有前途，，，