The much-hyped first visit of Sun Microsystems co-founder Scott McNealy to Bangalore, the tech capital of India, on Saturday turned out to be anything but business as usual.

Over 2000 budding developers cramped the venue in the Indian Institute of Science to listen in rapt attention on the latest IT trends, tools and technologies from the CEO of the $20-billion IT behemoth at the Sun Tech 2003 meet, organised by Sun's Indian subsidiary.

But what they got in return was a high-pitch sales promotion of Sun products and systems, with loads of Microsoft bashing.

McNealy, known to make best use of any platform to ridicule Microsoft, urged developers to keep away from Windows and OfficeXP because of bugs and viruses.

Even as McNealy talked about the virtues of the "Network is the Computer" for seamless connectivity to woo the developers, he tried to convince them that they now have a choice over Microsoft operating system.

"Sun's business model leverages the strengths of leading developers and systems integrators in the sub-continent. Our open platform and integrated architecture allows us to work with world class technologies to create long-term value for shareholders and customers," McNealy stated.

Harping on the emerging technologies built around the Internet, McNealy said the day was not far away when thin client terminals would become pervasive to enable millions of people to opt for mobility by using Java-based cell phones and smart chip cards.

"Sun will soon be unleashing mobility with security harnessing its technology like Java Card, J2ME, Sun Ray, and its Solaris operating environment. Our technologies will make it possible for everything with a digital, electrical or biological heartbeat to connect to the Network.

"This paradigm shift in the way we work and live will create huge potential and challenges for enterprises, service providers and consumers the world over. Global technology habits and governance will be forced to adapt to this new connected reality," McNealy extolled, drawing applause from the young professionals.

Calling upon the Indian developers' community to work on Sun platforms for developing an alternative operating system based on open source software, McNealy said thin client technology would be beneficial to countries like India as it would reduce the cost of ownership but enhance its utility with multiple applications.

"India is well positioned to board the Internet bus as it does not have the baggage of the mainframe legacy.

"Even as the world moves away from stand alone desktops and wired network environment to the Web and mobile devices, its advantage India to adapt itself to the emerging wireless network computing system for better mobility with security," McNealy asserted.

Referring to the telecom revolution in India over the last decade, McNealy called upon the developers to use the Java XML platform for developing the next generation products and applications.