Actually, based on the hype, this sounds like a perfect match.

Funny thing about Java: It failed as a Windows-killer because in its early days, most PCs didn't have the processing power to run programs written in a byte-code language with as much responsiveness as native applications. And it didn't help that most network connections were too limited to let users download full-blown applications every time they were needed.

Now PCs have the juice and the broadband connections. But Java has been pigeonholed as a language for Web applets and back-end processing. And the buzz is long gone. Conventional wisdom says Java does a nice job in its niche, but it'll never take on the world again.

So Sun is putting Java out to open-source pasture. After all those years of developing it, promoting it, enhancing it and defending it from the corruption of Microsoft's incompatibilities, Sun will soon leave Java in the hands of a bunch of kids whose pay comes in the form of admiration from, um, other kids.

If that's not death for a onetime worldbeater, what is it?