Salon

Is there hope for Java?


One Sunday in September 1996, Adam Bosworth, a respected Microsoft software engineer who headed the company's Internet Explorer division, wrote a long memo to several company executives, including Bill Gates. Bosworth knew that Gates, then the company's CEO, was about to go on one of his "Think Weeks" -- the monkish retreats during which he pondered Microsoft's long-term business strategies. In preparation for the week, Bosworth wanted to alert Gates to an emerging danger.