Stardate 20020221.1020

(On Screen): Rafe Coburn points out how no matter what concession you seem to wring out of Microsoft, somehow it always seems to end up ahead. That's true, and there's no better example of that then Microsoft's wrangling with Sun over Java.

Sherman, set the WayBack machine to 1995. Microsoft owns the desktop, and network effect already works in its favor even then to make its hold on the desktop virtually unbreakable. The problem is that Windows is the preferred desktop because so much software is available for it, and software developers want to develop for it because so many customers use it.

Sun wants to break that hold, and their solution is Java. It is an interpreted language running a P-code in a consistent environment; it's sort of a virtual API sitting on top of the actual operating system environment and insulating the program from the details of the OS. So one of its promises is "Write Once, Run Everywhere". If enough systems have Java environments running on them, then it would become an attractive target for developers, whose software would then no longer be bound to Windows, and Microsoft's advantage would be broken.

Of course, that means that Java would have to be available on Windows. So Sun makes a licensing deal with Microsoft. But the management at Microsoft are not fools and fully recognize the danger; their goal is to fractionate Java so that programs are not portable from one Java to another. In particular, the idea is to make it so that Java on Windows is better, so that Windows becomes the preferred platform on which to run it.

I've read the licensing agreement and in my opinion Microsoft foxed Sun. One of the things that it permitted was for Microsoft to add proprietary enhancements. Microsoft was required to support the core language specification, but it looked to me as if the agreement also permitted Microsoft to add things which were not portable. And programs written in Java which took advantage of those extensions would not be portable to any other platform, and thus Microsoft's hold on the desktop would not be broken.

Sun eventually sued, and the court process wound its way slowly forward in court time, even as the industry moved forward at internet speed. Finally, about a year ago, about the time the whole question had become moot, Sun and Microsoft settled. Microsoft paid a token amount of money to Sun, promised to never use certain Sun trademarks, and promised to stop developing their JVM. Scott McNealy crowed:

"It's pretty simple: This is a victory for our licensees and consumers," Sun CEO Scott McNealy said in a statement. "The community wants one Java technology: one brand, one process and one great platform. We've accomplished that, and this agreement further protects the authenticity and value of Sun's Java technology."

Six months later, Microsoft foxed Sun yet again: it announced that it was going to stop shipping Java in its operating systems. Sun dismissed the decision:

"We're going to ship Windows XP, and we're going to ship it on Oct. 25," Sullivan said. "One of the things we want to make sure we do is not put it at risk. Sun has demonstrated it will use legal means to compete."

Sun derided the position. "I'm not even going to grace that with an answer. They had the legal right to distribute the JVM as a right of the settlement. I don't know how anything can be clearer than that," Harrah said. "This is their decision not to have it in there."

"Lets say we put in the Java VM and come Oct. 1; Sun decides there is something about our implementation based on the settlement that they disagree with and they try to enjoin us from shipping Windows XP," Sullivan said.

Certainly Microsoft's explanation for it was transparent, but Sun missed the point of the settlement from last January: Microsoft had the right to ship the JVM but no obligation to do so. And by ceasing to do so it instantly took a major knock out of Sun's own network effect for Java on the client.

Sun ultimately realized their mistake, and took out newspaper ads calling on consumers to demand that Microsoft include the JVM in WinXP. Needless to say, Microsoft ignored them, and Java does not ship with WinXP.

Microsoft was one step ahead of Sun the entire way; it was a masterful exercise in electropolitics. So it's hardly surprising to learn that Microsoft's deal with the government ended up benefiting Microsoft more than harming it.

include   +force_include   -force_exclude