Around 15 months after announcing the project, Sun and IBM have pulled the plugs on JavaOS for Business, which was intended to produce a Java-based operating system for network computers. Allegedly. The joint effort also had a lot to do with combining the weight of the two companies to defend "pure" Java standards against the onslaught of Microsoft and - occasionally - HP. Appeal court decisions aside, that threat has receded somewhat in the interim. Customers don't seem to have been particularly turned on by JavaOS for Business, however, the consensus appearing to be that yet another OS for thin clients, even a JavaOS, is at least one too many. The alternative approach of running a JVM on the operating systems the customer already uses, or of using an open source OS like FreeBSD or Linux as a base OS for a thin client, seems to have been more effective so far, and to hold out greater promise for the future. Sun itself is hailing the demise of JavaOS for Business as an indication of how wonderfully Java is doing. This might seem a bizarre stance initially, but there's some truth in it. If the customers can get whatever they need to support Java without installing a whole new OS, then why bother? ®