Sun Exec: Java Threatens Microsoft Monopoly

Welcome Guest. | Log In| Register | Membership Benefits

December 02, 1998 (6:25 AM EST)

By Mary Mosquera,

Sun Microsystems' Java technology threatens Microsoft's operating system monopoly, so the software giant created its own version of the cross-platform code, said James Gosling, one of Java's creators and the chief scientist of Sun's Java division.

Gosling's pretrial testimony was released Tuesday, and he's scheduled to take the stand next in the U.S. government's antitrust case against Microsoft.

Applications written in Java are designed to run on many platforms, letting developers concentrate more on creating new software instead of rewriting one application many times to run on several systems, Gosling said.

"The benefit of the Java technology's cross-platform compatibility is it can free developers, hardware vendors, and users from dependence on any particular operating system. It may therefore be seen as a threat to Microsoft's Windows PC operating system monopoly," Gosling said.

Java permits some software to run within Internet browsers, and some Java-based programs can be downloaded from the Internet. The goal is to have Java technology run on other hardware than the computers, such as cellular phones, he said.

Gosling also testified in federal court in San Jose, Calif., in Sun's case against Microsoft that the Redmond, Wash., company had violated terms of its contract to license the Java technology by making it Microsoft-specific. A judge ruled in November for Sun.

That case may have some influence in the Washington, D.C., trial. U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson will decide Wednesday whether testimony from the California Sun-Microsoft trial can be introduced in the government's antitrust case against Microsoft.

Traditional software development reinforces the position of the dominant OS, Gosling said in his deposition. "I have found that funding software development across multiple platforms is often uneconomical, given the expensive tasks of recoding, testing, debugging, updating, and supporting multiple versions without a large enough potential customer market for each version," he said.

Java programs are versatile because they run on an intermediate software layer, called a Java virtual machine, that translates the Java code for whatever platform it's running on.

"Microsoft has done a number of things that have had the effect of reducing the cross-platform promise of the Java technology," Gosling said. Microsoft's version is dependent on the Windows OS and other Microsoft proprietary technology, such as its Internet Explorer browser and development tool kit, to make its version the Java standard.

Microsoft countered that it supports cross-platform Java applications on Windows, and its Java products have been acknowledged as superior to Sun's version, according to a Microsoft statement. Microsoft also said it is being held to a higher standard than other companies on its Java compatibility.

"Sun has let its allies ship products that are admittedly noncompliant while choosing to litigate against Microsoft, even though Microsoft has the most compatible implementation of Java available," Microsoft said.

While Palo Alto, Calif.-based Sun promised developers they could Write Once, Run Anywhere in reality, 100-percent Java products have limitations, Microsoft said. As a result of the recent California court ruling, Microsoft said it will support Sun's Java interface along with its enhanced Java interface.

"If Microsoft successfully fragments the Java technology, the cross-platform benefits to vendors, developers, and users will be damaged, and any threat the Java technology poses to Microsoft's dominant Windows operating system will be neutralized," Gosling said.