Although he acknowledged that Oracle chief Larry Ellison used the network computer as a device for home computing, McNealy told the audience in Manhattan that Sun sees the upcoming machines as having their most useful applications in offices and public kiosks.

Installation of Windows 95, for instance, is just one example of the job that is not as troublesome in the individual home setting as in companies employing 10 or more people, according to the Sun CEO.

Public kiosk applications for the device will include hotel rooms and retail stores, he predicted. A retail chain like The Gap, for example, could use a network computing kiosk to run promotional presentations for customers and training videos for employees, in addition to day-to-day operational software programs. The "zero maintenance device" will not need a disk except for applications such as those where cash is desirable, McNealy continued. The RISC chip might replace an Intel processor for a video application, he suggested. "And instead of a CD, why not DRAM."

Sun, McNealy maintained, is becoming better known for Java than for its company name. In light of the state of recent announcements by systems manufacturers, virtually every major OS will embed Java, including the mainframe-based MVS, all of IBM's other OS, and Microsoft's Windows environment, he observed.

The biggest benefit of Java is that developers no longer need to port applications from one OS to another, the CEO contended.

Another advantage is that information system (IS) "pros" will be spared the burden of configuring software for each individual workstation. Users on multiple platforms will be able to download applications from the network through Java.

Also during the keynote, McNealy pointed to the "new paradigm" for software distribution that is coming forth with the rise of the Internet. Back in the days when applications and OS were released as packaged software, developers would not expect to make money from a product until version 3.0, he noted.

Today, though, when so much software is being given away over the Web, the time when profitability would be achieved is less certain, he indicated.

In many instances, software is even less profitable than "bottled water," McNealy quipped.

(Jacqueline Emigh/19960618)