CNET News.com, Borland readies cross-platform tools: This summer, Borland plans to release Janeva, an application that lets corporate developers use Microsoft tools to build Windows applications that work with software written to non-Microsoft development models, including Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) and the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA).
Borland’s “Switzerland” strategy is smart. There will be times when .NET is the best solution and times when J2EE is the best solution, just as Windows and Linux each have their sweet spots today. One will never fully displace the other–unless, of course, one side is so arrogant as to discount the other as “inferior” and lose sight of what the market demands. Hint: I’m not worried about Microsoft’s arrogance here–they’re smarter than that. Here’s an example.
This carries over to the open source/free software vs. proprietary software debate as well. And this is why it is my position that the insular “thou shalt only use Free Software” attitude that is so prevalent in the free software community (and, to a lesser extent, the open source community) is the single biggest obstacle in the way of our collective success. Linux and J2EE and every other technology is but a part of the world around it. We, the community, must act that way.