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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Ferguson who wrote (13106)	12/9/1998 10:24:00 PM
From: XiaoYao	Respond to of 74651

Microsoft, Java -2: Claims Sun Used Double Standard >MSFT By Mark Boslet 12/09/98 Dow Jones News Service (Copyright (c) 1998, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.) WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) argued that Sun Microsystems Inc. (SUNW) played favorites with Java, giving Netscape Communications Corp. (NSCP) slack on adhering to key standards while standing firm with Microsoft. This double-standard did more to harm the spread of Java and its promise of "write once-run anywhere" than Microsoft's efforts to develop a Windows-specific version of the software, Microsoft suggested during its antitrust trial. However, Sun Vice President James Golsing disagreed with that view of the Sun-Microsoft battle over Java. Netscape, he said, had promised to adhere to the standards while Microsoft "flatly said they would never," he said. Further, Microsoft had expressed no interest in cross-platform programs designed to run equally well no matter what operating system a computer uses, Gosling said. "Our view is that they were trying to disable efforts to be able to write things on other platforms," he said. During cross-examination of Gosling, Microsoft Associate General Counsel Thomas Burt pointed out that in 1997 Netscape failed to incorporate Sun's Java native interface, or JNI, in its browser, Navigator version 4.0. The JNI is designed to enable Java to work cross-platform, or uniformly well with computers running a variety of operating systems. Sun looked the other way even though it took Microsoft to court when the software giant wrote its own Windows-centric software and ignored the JNI, Burt said. Last month, a San Jose, Calif., District Court Judge issued a preliminary injuntion against Microsoft in the case, ordering it to make its Java conform to Sun's specifications. The Java dispute goes to the heart of the antitrust suit filed in District Court here, in which the Department of Justice and 19 states claim Microsoft used its monopoly power against rivals. As part of the case, the government alleges that Microsoft integrated Explorer, with the company's own Java, into Windows to forestall the spread of Sun's Java and the threat it posed to its operating systems business. In making his argument, Burt produced a pair of 1996 Sun e-mail messages inviting a raft of top technology companies to several Java meetings and noticably excluding Microsoft. On the guest list were Intel Corp. (INTC), Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE), Novell Inc. (NOVL), Netscape and International Business Machines Corp. (IBM). Gosling, however, said the lack of an invitation was because Microsoft, while expressing interest in attending, was "heavily pushing" its Windows-only way of writing Java. Gosling went on to explain Sun had good reasons for cutting Netscape slack. "They were working with us honorably" and had "made a commitment to supporting JNI," he said. "They also had some serious engineering difficulties" at a time when their business was facing financial strains from the decision to give Navigator away for free, he said. Netscape stopped charging for Navigator in the face of competition from Microsoft, which was giving its browser away for free. "As the technology evolved, they were unable to keep up," Gosling added, unlike Microsoft, which was able to publicly release a Java product with the JNI technology only weeks after the injunction was issued. But Burt nevertheless continued to challenge Gosling's claim that Netscape was a trusted partner. He produced a September 1996 e-mail from Sun's Jon Kannegaard, vice president of software products. In it Kannegaard vents his frustration with Netscape over a JavaScript licensing agreement. "They are completely untrustworthy," Kannegaard writes. "No agreement with Netscape is worth the ink it's written with. Go sign a deal with Saddam Hussein. It has a better chance of being honored."