Thread ---June 14, 1999
Microsoft-Backed Firm Clones
Key Parts of Sun's Java Program
By LEE GOMES
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
A small company funded by Microsoft Corp. has cloned key elements of
Java programming technology, another headache for Sun Microsystems
Inc. as it tries to maintain control over a software movement that seems to
be struggling.
Transvirtual Technologies Inc., a closely held six-person start-up in
Berkeley, Calif., said it is introducing a product called "Kaffe" that runs
programs that take advantage of variations introduced into Java by
Microsoft. The additions from Microsoft allow programmers to write Java
software that will run only on the Windows operating system.
Sun, trying to weaken the appeal of Windows,
has been promoting Java as a way to write
programs that work on any operating system.
Transvirtual's technology, which also runs
programs written for Sun's version of Java,
was written independently without using software from either Microsoft or
Sun, said Tim Wilkinson, Transvirtual's chief executive officer.
Microsoft is hampered from developing such technology itself under rulings
in a long-running legal battle with Sun. Microsoft's public-relation agency is
helping to spread the word about Transvirtual's technology, which is being
announced Monday on the eve of a Sun-sponsored conference called
JavaOne.
Sun officials insist that support for Java continues to grow. The Palo Alto,
Calif., computer maker is expected to use the JavaOne event to unveil
initiatives to make Java more useful both to corporate computer users and
to companies building new kinds of consumer devices, such as "smart"
pagers.
Originally promoted as an alternative to Microsoft's technology on
personal computers and the Internet, Java has had more success among
companies developing complex software for centralized machines called
servers. Even there, however, Java's momentum seems to be flagging.
Clay Ryder, an analyst with Zona Research Inc. in Redwood City, Calif.,
said that in his company's regular survey of corporate software
development projects, Java's popularity actually declined slightly from last
year to this year. According to Mr. Ryder, Java remains in a distant fourth
place as the preferred language of corporate software projects.
Sun has been making gains in the courtroom, where a federal judge in San
Jose, Calif., ruled that Microsoft violated its 1996 license with Sun when it
made certain modifications to Java. But the rulings have left an opening for
a company such as Transvirtual, which has no Sun license, to
independently develop technology that makes it easier to use Microsoft's
Java variations.
A Sun spokeswoman said that as long as Transvirtual -- or any other Java
clone maker -- didn't violate any of Sun's intellectual property, Sun would
have no legal complaint against them. But the spokeswoman also said that
creating such technology independently would be very difficult, considering
the complexity of the Java language.
Jim Mitchell, a Sun vice president, added that programmers continue to
express a desire for a unified Java.
BEST WISHES
BILL |
