All,
A SUNW defeat could be looked upon as a WINTEL victory. The following is taken from Bloomberg News:
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BN 6/5 Sun Micro Java Standard Plan Voted Down by U.S. Body (Update1)
Sun Micro Java Standard Plan Voted Down by U.S. Body (Update1)
(Adds further Sun comment.)
Fairfax, Virginia, June 5 (Bloomberg) -- Sun Microsystems Inc.'s proposal to submit its Java Internet language to an international standards body was voted down by a U.S. standards committee.
Further details weren't available from the committee about its vote of ``no, with comment.'' The next step is for the votes from 29 other countries on the proposal to be tallied after the July 14 deadline, Sun said.
Java is a computer language used to write programs stored on central computers and designed to run on operating systems made by many different companies. Sun, which developed Java, wanted to maintain control of it to prevent others from altering it to their advantage, in particular targeting Microsoft Corp., a big rival that licenses and uses Java. ``We wanted to put it out there and have it become something people could point out and know it won't change,'' said Jim
Mitchell, vice president of technology and architecture at Sun's
JavaSoft unit.
Sun said the comments about the proposal centered around control of the Java trademark, questions about who would maintain the standard and the technology that Sun would submit as part of the standard process.
Sun said it would respond to the comments made by the U.S. group, although it wasn't sure whether it would do so before or after the other countries voted. This would depend on the guidelines of the international standards body, the International Organization for Standardization, or ISO.
A ``no, with comment'' vote means that the vote could be changed if the concerns are addressed, Sun said. The company said that the ISO isn't asking Sun to give up the Java trademark, and that the concerns of the U.S. standards group centered around whether products would be able to carry the Sun name, rather than an ISO code number designating the Java technology. ``We believe they (the U.S. standards group) wants more clarification rather than fundamental change,'' Mitchell said.
Before the vote, some of the U.S. group's members criticized Sun for wanting to maintain control of certain intellectual property rights to Java, including the 100 percent Java certification program. Some members also questioned whether a private company such as Sun should be able to submit standards directly to ISO.
Microsoft and Intel Corp., whose software and chips power most of the world's personal computers, have been vocally opposed to the standard. Microsoft and Intel couldn't vote because they are new members of the U.S. standards body. International Business Machines Corp. and Digital Equipment Corp. were in favor.
Sun wants to maintain control of the rights, which would mean that companies using Java would have to prove that their products meet standards set by Sun rather than by the ISO, said the Information Technology Industry, which manages the U.S. standards body.
Sun is asking to become a Publicly Available Standard, or PAS, submitter, which would give it the right to submit the technology for approval to the ISO.
That would let Sun bypass U.S. standards bodies such as the Electrical and Electronics Engineers or the National Committee for Information and Technology Standards. Sun said it chose that route to speed up the standardization process.
The vote was held at a meeting in Fairfax, Virginia, of the JTC1 TAG -- the U.S. arm of the JTC1, an international technical committee that develops and approves international standards for the computer industry under the auspices of the ISO and the International Electromechanical Organization.
Twenty-nine members of the U.S. standards body voted today, Sun said.
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