This article was mentioned on this week’s JavaPosse podcast, and is an interesting ‘top 12’ of the most influential software systems ever written, according to their historical impact and longevity.
Interesting to note, the author ranks Java in the top 5, for it’s use of the Virtual Machine giving platform independence, the concepts of the Applet sandbox, and the fact that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery – Microsoft borrowed the concepts of the Java Platform by implementing their own virtual machine as an integral part of the .NET platform (the Common Language Runtime), and then developed their own Java-like language, C#. Interestingly enough though, Microsoft seems to have missed the whole point about platform independence by only developing .NET for the Windows platform, but then when you control the desktop world with Windows why would you want to support any other platform?
Check out the rest of the list for some interesting computing history.