Andreessen: PHP succeeding where Java isn’t (CNet News.com)

21 Oct 2005

An interesting article from CNet reporting Marc Andreessen’s (of Netscape fame, amongst other things) comments on the future of PHP and Java. Personally, I think the whole thing is overplayed. So what, we’re seeing a diversion between where the technologies are applied? Okay… PHP has the higher level closer-to-the-browser layers, and Java does the hardcore stuff. It is, as the article suggests, a pretty complex language, and it’s being used accordingly.

At the end of the article (second page), Andreessen is quoted as saying “I think Flash is one of the most exciting technologies out there that’s almost on the verge of great success and never quite achieving it.”

What on earth is his definition of success? Flash has 97% market penetration, which is higher than any operating system on the planet, let alone browser or scripting language. He’s decrying the peril of Java as it shifts away from prominence on the web — and who needs Java applets, anyway? Google, if you try and get into that whole thing, damn you too. They’re slow to load, and generally crap. Newer versions are looking more and more like Flash clones, with video support leading the way in this area — to where? Why, to the systems that sit behind the web. It still fits with Sun’s infamous “the network is the computer” paradigm, albeit slightly differently.

Me, I don’t particularly care about the backend tools. I’m a frontend person. However, if we can reduce complexity of systems closer to the delivery layer, we should — if this means choosing PHP for something over Java, so be it. PHP, however, doesn’t run on the desktop (unless you’re someone with BSD and too much time on your hands ;-), and Java does. This, admittedly, is slightly apart from Sun’s proclaimed strategy — but it isn’t really such a bad place to be. The places this technology is/has a stronghold is the enterprise desktop. I can only see Java in this field moving in the direction of desktop apps as a gateway to the network, as that (so it seems to me) has always been one of the platform’s core advantages — it has great connectivity powers.

Java, for a standalone app, seems a little… lonely. It doesn’t make sense. It’s like a real compiled app, only probably more complex and slower. Once you introduce the network, it starts to make sense. I think Eclipse’s director Mike Milinkovich has a quote that surmises the article flawlessly: “Java and PHP compete at some level. Get over it.”