Empires Fall, the latest chapter

Microsoft won’t back Sun product

Just before closing arguments in its antitrust case, Microsoft delivered a broadside to one of its bitter software rivals, declaring Tuesday it will stop supporting Sun Microsystems' flagship product by 2004.

Microsoft cited Sun's opposition in the case as the reason for the decision to remove support for Sun’s Java programming language from future versions of Microsoft's Windows operating system. (MSNBC is a Microsoft-NBC joint venture.)

"The decision to remove Microsoft's Java implementation was made because of Sun’s strategy of using the legal system to compete with Microsoft," Microsoft spokesman Jim Cullinan said in a statement.

A Sun spokeswoman did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

For a company that is so all-fired concerned about its customers, to the point of bolting other applications into its operating system for "customer convinience" -- and, coincidentally, competition elimination -- this is a strange stance. (Not that I'd cry if Java and Active-X both went bye-bye.)

Several witnesses appearing in the states' case against Microsoft, including executives of computer maker Gateway, accused the software giant of retaliating against companies that refused Microsoft edicts or helped the government build its antitrust case.

And, voila, here they do it in public, admitting that retaliation is part of the reason for this decision. Madmen are in charge of the company.

A federal court found that Microsoft created programming tools that fooled Java programmers into thinking they were writing software that would work on any version of Java, rather than just Microsoft’s version. Microsoft still disputes that anyone was tricked into writing incompatible software.

And this was one of the actions taken against Microsoft that was open and shut. They attempted to co-opt a competitor's product and make it uniquely their own, then denied it. Now caught, they're just going to pretend the product doesn't exist and that none of their customers use it. They're concern is...touching.

"The settlement agreement between the companies prevents Microsoft from making any changes -- including any security fixes -- to our Java implementation after January 1, 2004," Cullinan said. "We will not put our customers or Windows at risk so you can anticipate that there will be no Java in Windows from that point forward."

Yet somehow others are able to put Java to work without attempting to steal it from Sun. Obviously Microsoft likes this entire notion of intellectual property theft, from MS-DOS v1.0 on.

Ah well, life goes on. Macintosh looks more attractive each day, though I'd still like to tinker with a Linux box. A Mac would still leave me stuck with M$ software, while a Linux box would probably require more hobby time than I'm able to devote at this time.

HOWEVER, I am tremendously excited to see what sort of product and company knocks M$ into the dirt. It's out there, just wait and see.