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Oracle discloses plan for Java-based personal applications

By Sari Kalin InfoWorld Electric

Posted at 1:30 PM PT, Sep 25, 1996 Oracle Corp. is developing a suite of network-based personal productivity applications that are written in Java, an Oracle executive said Wednesday.

"We are actually working on this, a suite of network-aware applications that assume there's a dial tone, assume there's a server at the other end," said Joseph Vassallo, vice president of the Sun products division at the Redwood Shores, Calif. company.

The applications being developed by Oracle will be designed to run on Network Computers, Vassallo said, and will be tightly integrated with other personal productivity applications and with Oracle's business applications.

Oracle does not have a significant presence in the personal productivity applications market, but Vassallo said that its applications, which will have functionality similar to Microsoft Office, will have the advantage of having been designed from the start to run on a network.

"It will take Microsoft a long time to get there. They're network-enabling their applications, not making them network-aware," Vassallo said. "Most companies are moving fat Windows clients over to fat Java clients. We think there's a great opportunity for components."

Vassallo made his remarks at Sun Microsystems Inc.'s JavaComputing Day in Boston. More information on when the personal productivity applications will be released will be available within 30 to 45 days, he said, adding that information will likely be available at Oracle Open World, a user conference to be held in San Francisco November 3-7.

The applications suite will be handled by a separate organization; not by Oracle's applications, network computing, or Sun products group, according to Vassallo.

Oracle will also release Developer/2000, with Java support, for beta testing by the end of the year, Vassalo said.

Oracle is at http://www.oracle.com/.

Sari Kalin is a Boston-based correspondent with the IDG News Service, an InfoWorld affiliate. [Image]

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Copyright © 1996 InfoWorld Publishing Company

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