Netscape and Sun would like everyone to think of it as a platform so that they and their products would seem more important. It's a new implementation of some old ideas. None of that is important. Java IS NOT important because it is not a platform.
Platforms ARE important.
Lets do a reality check, and that means market share. I absolutely agree. Think about this for a second. What if Microsoft was the only vendor of operating systems in the world, and all hardware was Intel based, which we are not far from today. No question we would have standards.