PC Magazine: Java for 1998 (04/9/98)
2 1/2 years later, look at that boneyard. Activerse Ding!, Lotus eSuite, Netmosphere ActionPlan, Divya infoBook, all these collaborative productivity webified you name it apps were terminated. A few remain (Novita LiveLetter, TimeCruiser, Volano Chat, WebProject) but how successful are they? I'm not sure there's even anyone left behind some of these sites. Who will make it in the current web app wave and what mistakes were made 2 years ago that can be avoided now? After all, the sales pitch is not that different.

I guess there are both technical and business issues. I see less Java around (except for some visualization stuff). Is Microsoft going to make it with .NET, their XML/SOAP platform being used by some of the new apps? Will current web app vendors be able to break into corporate accounts, or monetize their mostly free personal versions? Time will tell. I'm just trying to remain reasonably optimistic.