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HOME >> OPINIONS

Not a Cease-Fire, Not a Truce

By SD Times News Team

November 1, 2003 — Sun wants to expand the penetration of Java within the enterprise, and more tightly couple the well-known Java brand around its own software offerings. Meanwhile, Microsoft wants to see Java die, die, die.

Despite those rather diametrically opposed business goals, Microsoft has decided to continue maintaining its (outdated) Java Virtual Machine for nine months longer than expected, through September 2004. Sun had to grant Microsoft permission to do so; under the terms of its January 2001 legal settlement, Microsoft could support that old code only through January.

While both companies trumpeted their new agreement, don't read too much into the newfound cooperation between Bill and Scott. Sun still wants to expand and monetize Java, and Microsoft still wants to kill it. The only agreement is that both companies need more time to strengthen their competitive technological offering and marketing pitches before Microsoft stops supporting that ancient Java code.

To its credit, Sun has done a good job of getting hardware vendors-including enterprise competitors Dell and Hewlett-Packard-to bundle Sun's up-to-date JVM on desktops and notebooks. But after all, what do those OEMs have to lose? It makes no sense to ship a consumer or business desktop system with an out-of-date JVM. And since Microsoft's desktop software offerings, such as Windows XP and Office 2003, can coexist perfectly well with the latest J2SE runtimes, there's no reason for customers to choose one over the other.

The real battleground for Java remains in the mobile and server arenas-the latter being where Microsoft's .NET is most strongly focused. So while it's laudable that the companies agreed that Microsoft should continue supporting its obsolescent JVM for another few months, we don't expect to see any genuine d?tente between the companies. If anything the intensity and enmity will increase in 2004.

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