[JAVA ONE]Sun answers my question

In several previous posts I've wondered aloud: "I can see that Sun spends a ton of money on Java. It must be astronomical. What's the strategy behind that? How do they make money on that?"

Jonathan Schwartz, Sun's President and COO, answers that question directly in his new Blog.

And in the " you can't win" department: One of my observations about this year's Java One was that there was a real contrast between the way Java ran this and the way, for example, Microsoft runs the PDC (Professional Developers Conference.) Microsoft works hard at and I think succeeds at painting a grand future for their stuff. Not only what is here today, but what will be coming in 12 months, 3 years, 5 years and even 10 years. A holistic and compelling vision.

In contrast, at Java One, I felt Sun basically appologetic: "No, Java really is fast" and "See, it is possible to write real time applications in Java" and, "Who said you can't make great desktop apps in Java?".

And with this posting, Jonathan Schwartz continues this appologia : "No, stop complaining: we do have an idea of how we make money on Java. Just like GE made money on standard rails, [and other parallel examples]"

I am not sure that the economics argument works (over my head) but I am sure that it doesn 't bristle with confidence and passion.