toggle

AAPL Stock: 431.77 ( 0 )

http://www.macnn.com/articles/01/01/24/microsoft,.sun/

Microsoft, Sun settle Java lawsuit

updated 01:00 am EST, Wed January 24, 2001

 
", 0, 0);


Microsoft and Sun yesterday settled a 3-year-old lawsuit, with Microsoft agreeing to pay Sun $20 million for limited use of its Java programming technology. The suit had alleged Microsoft had violated terms of its licensing agreement for Java by improperly modifying the technology so it would only work with its Windows computer operating system.


by MacNN Staff

Post tools:

TAGS :

 industry

Related Articles

Recent Articles

toggle

Comments

  1. 0

    Joined:

    0
    01/24, 09:53am | report spam | Reply | delete

    Justice!

    This can only be a good thing, that MS has been held accountable for violating the terms of the license they'd been granted. This should give hope for the future.

  1. 0

    Joined:

    0
    01/24, 10:25am | report spam | Reply | delete

    Mac Java

    Will this mean that the interent companies which use Java which won't work on MacOS, will have to clean up their act?

  1. 0

    Joined:

    0
    01/24, 11:10am | report spam | Reply | delete

    So Long Java...

    ....Does Sun really think that preventing Java"s use in the OS that runs 90+% of the personal computers out there is a GOOD thing?

    Oh well...so long Java....it was fun while it lasted....

  1. 0

    Joined:

    0
    01/24, 03:16pm | report spam | Reply | delete

    Java Here To Stay

    Just because MS lost it's license for Java does not mean Java won't be able to run on an Intel PC. On the contrary, as long as the real Java is used it will work fine. It will still be available and Sun will keep developing it in the future. This settlement just killed off the b****** child that MS spawned. Long live cross platform programming.

  1. 0

    Joined:

    0
    01/24, 06:40pm | report spam | Reply | delete

    Only $20 mil?

    The only way Microsoft can really repair the damage is help Sun work with Apple to make all its Java 2.0 Mac compatible. Anyone from Macintosh Business Unit of Microsoft listening? For Java to be really successful it should be 100% crossplatform compatible. It has yet proven to do that alone.

  1. 0

    Joined:

    0
    01/25, 05:15am | report spam | Reply | delete

    Re: So Long Java

    Does Sun really think that preventing Java"s use in the OS that runs 90+% of the personal computers out there is a GOOD thing?

    No Sun does not think that. Do you even know what the lawsuit was about? Apparently not. Do you know all the terms of this settlement? Apparently not.

    Sun wants Java on all OS platforms, but it is important that Java is 100% compatible across all platforms. That was the issue in this lawsuit. Microsoft violated their licensing agreement and made Java on Windows incompatible with Java from other platforms.

    Java will still be available on the Windows platform. Existing Microsoft products (for example IE) will use an outdated verion of Java, but Windows software from other companies will be able to use current versions of Java. Future MS products will not be able to use Java at all without further negotiations with Sun.

    Although J++ should now be considered officially dead, MS will just try to convert those misguided developers to C#.

    It will be interesting to see how this affects the web browser market. Netscape, Mozilla, and other web browsers will be able to use the latest and greatest Java, but the future versions of Internet Explorer will be using Sun compliant, but outdated Java libraries. MS will include C# support in IE, but I do not see how the Windows only C# will gain enough marketshare to pose a threat to Java anytime soon. So if you want to be able to play with all the cool Java applets coming down the web, you will have to use something other than IE. (Go Mozilla!)

    I suppose the current releases of IE will continue to utilize the bastardize Java? Or does MS have to change the current IE distribution to use the older Java too?

  1. 0

    Joined:

    0
    01/25, 06:01am | report spam | Reply | delete

    Re: Justice

    Almost 2 years ago, the judge ordered that Microsoft either make their proprietary J++ version of Java and all other Java related MS products comply with the Sun licensing agreement or else MS would have to discontinue the products and pull them from stores. MS kept asking the court for extensions to the time frame given by the judge because they said that they could not rewrite their software that quickly. Meanwhile MS began creating C# to compete with Java and did not even try to make their products comply (it takes a long time to rewrite software when you never start).

    Now the out of court settlement says MS will stop illegally using Java and pay $20 million to Sun. That is their punishment for violating their licensing agreement for over 3 years and slowing the progress of platform independent Java development. I hope the $20 million covers Sun's court costs and lawyer fees. Microsoft will continue to make use of an outdated Sun compliant version of Java for the next seven years while they try to promote their C# substitute as a superior development platform.

    Despite the fact that the settlement is technically in favor of Sun, it still sounds like a Microsoft win to me.

    Of course the popular media puts a different spin on it.

    To see what I mean, check out the story at the following URL:
    http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB20010124S0019

Login Here

Not a member of the MacNN forums? Register now for free.

 
close
Photo
toggle

Network Headlines

toggle

Most Popular

MacNN Sponsor

Recent Reviews

dcx

vccxv dfgdfgdfg ...

dfdsfsdfds'dfgdf

dsfdsfdsfdgdfgdfgdfgdfgdfgdfgdfgdfgdg ...

Today

Today Test Monady Today Test Monady ...

toggle

Most Commented

 

Popular News