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Technology Stocks : All About Sun Microsystems -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Carragher who wrote (16208)	5/7/1999 8:10:00 AM
From: John Carragher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 64865

The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition -- May 7, 1999 Tech Center Sun Microsystems Makes Plans To Maintain Control of Java By DAVID P. HAMILTON Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Sun Microsystems Inc., eager both to maintain control of its Java software technology and have it adopted as a formal international standard, is planning an end run around obstacles it alleges were planted by archrival Microsoft Corp. and others. Two years ago, Sun said it would submit its Java specifications to the International Organization for Standardization in an attempt to mute criticism that Sun exercises too much control over the technology. Thursday, however, Sun formally abandoned its initial approach to the organization, known as the ISO, and instead submitted the Java specifications to ECMA, a standards body in Europe formerly known as the European Computer Manufacturers Association. Should ECMA approve the standard, it can submit Java to the ISO itself for fast-track approval. Alan Baratz, the head of Sun's Java software group, said Sun shifted tactics because of opposition from Microsoft, Intel Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. Specifically, Mr. Baratz charged Microsoft with spending "millions of dollars" to lobby against Sun's ISO application and said that as a result, a key ISO committee changed its rules in a way that would have forced Sun to give up future control of Java standards to an industry committee. Java is a computer language designed to create software programs that can run on any computer -- a feature Sun likes to call "write once, run anywhere." While critics charge that Java hasn't lived up to its promise, in part because Java programs have tended to run more slowly than other software, use of the language has continued to spread. That poses a threat to Microsoft's Windows operating system, which locks program developers into standards set by Microsoft, and has led to several fierce battles between Sun and Microsoft over control of Java. Microsoft, while it opposed Sun's ISO application, denies lobbying to block it, and says that Sun is simply seeking a "rubber stamp" from standards bodies for its technology. Intel also opposed Sun's efforts but had no further comment; H-P denied taking any "explicit action" to frustrate Sun's standards-approval attempt. ECMA, by contrast, appears to favor Sun's inclination to aggressively seek industry input for changes to Java while maintaining a final say over what the technology will look like.