Netscape "chief technology officer" Marc Andreessen outlined the future of his company today during a keynote speech at the Netscape DevCon. The big announcement: a "100% Pure Java" version of Communicator by 1998.
"Next year we are going to do a 100% pure version of Communicator built on JavaBeans," he said.
This Java version of Communicator will follow version 5.0 of the suite, dubbed "Mercury." Netscape feels that the fragmenting of the Windows market with multiple versions of the Microsoft OS makes a cross-platform component solution more important. Andreessen pointed out that the different, and somewhat incompatible versions of Windows--CE, 95, and NT--make developing for that market difficult.
"It's now clear Windows is fragmenting into multiple incompatible operating systems," Andreessen said between treks to Hardees. "All it really takes is one company to start harnessing technology, and the rest of the industry has to race to catch up because the bar has been raised."
A Netscape whitepaper on their strategy, which they call "Crossware," is available at the Netscape Web site
