Java goes back to the PC

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A bit of history.: Mr. Gosling is correct about Microsoft. The company did change Java so that developers using some of the improvements (and Microsoft's changes were improvements) were limited to Microsoft products. And Microsoft purposely did not tell the developers.

Years ago, Sun took the situation to Court, and Microsoft knew it was going to lose. So the company offered Sun approximately anything that company wanted as a settlement.

What happened next was odd and very damaging to Sun. My guess is that Sun decided Java was so valuable Microsoft would lose the desktop without it, particularly with Netscape becoming popular.

Sun allowed Microsoft to use only an obsolete version of Java for a period of years, and made no promises that Windows could continue with Java after that period was over.

So when Microsoft won on the desktop, including the browser, Sun lost.

Years later, ironically, Sun went to Court to force Microsoft to include Sun's Java with Windows. That was the case in which the Judge decided that Sun deserved a preliminary injunction forcing Microsoft to include Sun's Java with Windows immediately. .Net had just been issued, and the Judge believed that otherwise every Java developer would immediately drop Java.

The Appeals Court overturned that panic, but the Judge can observe .Net's success and feel vindicated.

Also, you're right that Sun is giving away its (software) stuff, including Java. Open source is a method of development predicated on making sale of the code as difficult as possible. Companies like Red Hat have found a way to sell open source code, but they've had to be very clever.; Posted by: Anton Philidor Posted on: 05/12/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use