OK, this post is about virtual machines in the JVM sense, not in the hypervisor sense. (The lines are getting a little blurry these days though.)
Back in the day, I once installed Windows NT on an RS/6000 (PowerPC) just to play with it. (It's funny how obsolete/impractical technology seemed so interesting back then, and these days it boggles my mind how anybody could care about Haiku, Amiga, etc.) So Windows NT: it installed OK, I started it up, and ran IE 2.0. That sucked (even at the time), but there were no updates for it. I ran the bundled Pinball game. That was the end of the story, because there was no ISV support. Just porting the kernel wasn't enough: an x86 WinNT application still couldn't run on PowerPC WinNT. The same fate could befall ARM netbooks (ahem "smartbooks").
This post suggests that .NET could be the answer. It starts by assuming that ARM netbooks will be common (a question on which the jury is still out), and then assumes Microsoft will somehow want to participate in that ecosystem (probably a safe bet: look at Windows ME on phones). Port some Windows kernel to ARM netbooks, provide a .NET runtime, and then just run .NET applications -- never worry about needing native ARM Windows binaries.
That has an existing parallel of course: J2ME on mobile phones. As a consumer, I'd call that a success. I love that I can download a random Java application and not worry about if the creator has built it for N phone vendors x M models. I'm sure J2ME has its limits, but it has made my life better.
And of course Google is walking down the same path with Dalvik. The cool thing about Java/Dalvik/.NET that it might just allow another processor architecture to compete with Intel without the legacy software issue. It will be interesting to see if Intel eventually enables Java on Moblin.
With Intel investing so many resources not just into the Linux kernel, but now into a full mobile Linux distribution (complete with UI), maybe Microsoft will annoy them right back by enabling ARM netbooks. You know both of them have to be looking to embedded systems for growth.
Anyways, I'd only buy a netbook that runs Linux. ;) I've heard good things about the ARM instruction set...
Interesting post.
ReplyDeleteI would like to disagree (slightly) that Java on phones is a success. Yes it works, but the slow startup (and even more annoying the slow exit) is almost a deal breaker for me. Even accessing a website in Australia (with my laptop) is (usually) faster than starting a Java app on my phone.
Funny, I was expecting J2ME criticism like "Java applications can't access my phone's GPS/accelerometer/camera/etc". :)
ReplyDeleteMy phone is a Sony Ericsson W580. It has been available for $0 (plus contract) for a while, so I don't think it's particularly fancy. However, I only see Java startup delay once per phone power-on, and even then it's on the order of 5 seconds. I can live with that.
Thanks for the link! And yes - since .NET is pretty much Microsoft's Java for all practical purposes (even being derived from the MSJVM originally), it would be a surefire way for Microsoft to get in on the ARM netbook market, and now that Chrome OS is somewhat shifting the hardware focus to that as well, Microsoft will predictably compete on that front as well as the olde x86 front as well.
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