WaveMaker

Sun Microsystem’s slogan used to be “the network is the computer.”  As an industry we’ve evolved that slogan to “the browser is the operating system.”  Powerful applications are delivered via the web.  Google’s announcement earlier this week of Google Chrome OS solidifies this direction.  As a user, all you need to run an application is a browser.

Google Chrome OS is architecturally identical to Palm’s WebOS – a modern browser running on Linux.  The difference, for now, is that Palm is targeting the Pre and Google is targeting netbooks.  This device distinction is based on corporate positioning rather than technical limitations.  Palm’s business is mobile devices, so of course WebOS will target Palm’s phones.  Google already has Android, which Google admits overlaps with Chrome OS, so they needed to target the edges of Android rather than the heart.  It may be that the OS wars have begun again but this time the battlefield is on lightweight devices.

This market direction works well for the WaveMaker community, which consists of people who are building sophisticated applications that are delivered on browsers.  Clearly the industry direction is moving quickly toward web architectures as the only way to deliver applications.  The WaveMaker community riding that wave (sorry, pun intended).  The WaveMaker community cares about the browsers used by our users but we don’t care about the operating system.  Google’s announcement provides even greater momentum in this direction.  WaveMaker will continue to expand the browsers we support, enabling your apps to be delivered to most any device (as long as it supports modern browser standards).