Brewing over Java

It was a grudging endorsement given nearly two years ago. But, back in December 1995, when Microsoft revealed how it was entering a new licensing deal to incorporate Sun Microsystem's Java language into its own software products, it was perhaps the best sign yet that Sun was on to something big.

On the eve of a big marketing event designed to convince customers, analysts and software developers that Microsoft was really a player on the Internet, Microsoft hammered out the outlines of a licensing agreement with Sun to use Java technology to create programs to run across the Net. It seemed like an incredible concession from Microsoft ? usually the company dictating standards ? to acknowledge Sun?s leadership.

Microsoft may have needed Sun?s technology then to prove its credibility in the emerging world of Internet software. But not any longer. The company has recently made a huge push into cybersoftware. Its Web browser, Internet Explorer, has 36% of the market, up from 4% two years ago. And, with the introduction of the latest version, IE 4.0, in September, Microsoft boss Bill Gates bragged that his company would soon grab 50% of the browser market and supplant market leader Netscape.

Analysts acknowledge this is achievable, since Explorer will be built into a new version of Windows that will ship with new PCs next year. That most PC manufacturers fiercely object to having Microsoft?s browser technology foisted on them in this way is another matter.

With the battle against Netscape proceeding nicely, Microsoft has put its energy into the bigger battle ? with Sun. The two companies have been wrangling privately for the past few months over how Microsoft will use Sun?s Java technology. Sun, which has built a massive following for the new programming language, is determined to make Microsoft conform to its standards ? and not make it simply another part of the Windows empire.

After negotiations broke down, Sun took the battle public in October with a breach-of-contract suit filed in federal court in San Jose, California.

Sun is charging that the way Java is used in IE 4.0 violates the terms of its licensing agreement. The technical issues behind the lawsuit may seem arcane to lay users, but the conflict between Sun and Microsoft could have profound importance. Java, as most in the IT industry know, is the technology that can at last make disparate computers work together across a network, and so reduce the need of operating systems such as Windows.

Java programs can run on any device that contains a bit of code called a Java Virtual Machine, which is now embedded in 80 million Web browsers. And because none of them have to rely on Windows to run the programs they get over the Net, the Microsoft operating system?s pivotal role is diminished ? and the software giant's leverage reduced.

As a result, Java is fast emerging as the first new software platform since Windows. Already, hundreds of corporations, from Federal Express and FTD to Banco do Brasil and Scottish Telecom, are using Java.

Analysts reckon that Java, which has the backing of IBM, Oracle, Netscape and some 700,000 programmers at software companies and in corporations, is perhaps the only remaining technology that can challenge Microsoft?s dominance.

Little wonder that Sun is playing hardball. But in suing Microsoft, the company takes on huge risks. The legal battle could take years to resolve. And that could slow Java?s momentum. Corporations and software developers want to be sure that they?re writing to a single standard so that they won?t have to rewrite programs later. Until the outcome of the Sun-Microsoft battle is clear, they may hold off writing Java programs.

Sun says Microsoft has decaffeinated Java, and slipped a Mickey in it ? all in an effort to tweak the standard and make Java Microsoft?s own brew. Sun claims Microsoft left out two key technologies to help Java run anywhere ? and secretly inserted other software so programs written with its version run slowly or not at all on anything but computers using Microsoft?s Windows.

Sun wants Microsoft to fix the software or quit using the Java trademark, or it may yank Microsoft's right to use Java altogether. ?They're really showing their stripes,? says Sun chief executive Scott McNealy. ?Of the 117 Java licensees, we?ve got one that doesn?t want to play.?

Nonsense, replies Cornelius Willis, Microsoft?s director of platform marketing. There?s no secret code, he says. Microsoft is just trying to make Java run better on Windows. Meanwhile, Microsoft continues to distribute copies of IE 4.0 ? flooding cyberspace with what Microsoft brags is the best Java around. ?If we were involved in 60 lawsuits, it wouldn't impede our ability to ship and sell products,? says Willis.

The suit also exposes Sun to criticism from companies that want the company that invented Java to make the technology more of an open industry standard and less of a proprietary technology, like Windows.

?Scott has personally talked his way into a huge corner on this one,? says Nick Earle, worldwide marketing manager at Hewlett-Packard?s enterprise systems group.

For Microsoft, defying the Java bandwagon carries its own risk. Some customers say they'll be less inclined to use their Internet software if it's not compliant with Java.

Sun says six months? worth of efforts to work out differences with Microsoft failed on September 28. Microsoft says Sun is trying to impose requirements that weren't in the original contract, details of which neither side will reveal.

Still, if Microsoft?s intent is to derail Java's progress, it may be too late. Indeed, Sun doesn't actually need Microsoft in its corner to keep Java percolating.