Summer of the Java Cloud

For those widget company ideas (like here and here), which are typically worked upon by some developer as a hobby - paying $75 per month to Amazon,with the added overhead of managing your systemimages , seems too much.

I am to glad to see that java in the cloud with pay on true usage shaping up. After all Java is still the most popular language around. The options on the horizon include
a) Stax
b) App Engine for Java
c) Sun Cloud

On Pricing:
Most of the widget company ideas start off as a hobby and get a life if the idea has potential so to expect a developer to pay $900 per year(the base version of Amazon EC2) on something that is just an experiment is way to much. The starting price has to be free

It seems to me that google has the best handle on this market -The innovation sourcing market. They have a free entry point but then tie you down to their proprietry and great tools. Note that to a developer GREAT is a more important than propreitry and to the google business managers PROPRIETARY is more important than great. Not to say that one can substitute or replace the other. Ley us see what sun microsystems comes out with - They promise on interoperability but will they be able to give something great within the constraints of interoperability.

Note: I must also say that I recognize that sun's and google's customers are different and their Cloud strategy will have to align with their customer's needs. For Google it is all about recruting developers as franchise's of their advertising business. For sun it is really about Enterprise and Datacenter