Slashdot Mirror
Sun and Microsoft Settle Litigation
spurious cowherd writes "According to The Register Sun Microsystems & Microsoft have reached a settlement in their several lawsuits aainst each other. Sun gets $2B and both parties agree to share intellectual property." There's a press release to read as well.
1) MS is *not* pledging to keep Java up-to-date on the Windows platform, which basically means that applets like mine (see sig) have to use Java 1.1 and nothing higher. Sure, people can download the Java plugin, and lots do, but more don't. On a casual visit to a website, no-one will go through the rigmarole of downloading and installing the latest Java, just to see your applet...
2) I'm a bit concerned about the "As a result of this agreement, Sun and Microsoft engineers will cooperate to allow identity information to be easily shared between Microsoft Active Directory and the Sun Java System Identity Server" part. The single-signon used to be limited to MS-only platforms, now it has the capability to reach into linux-server land
If I were being really cynical, I might conclude that MS had spent $2B of it's ample reserves to purchase an extension of single-sign-on into unix (linux and solaris) territory at a time when Sun needed cash.
It might just slap the EU back into line a bit as well, considering that MS will *spend* $2B to *possibly get* an advantage. What was that fine again ? (Yes, I know about the other measures, but you can only respond with what you have, and MS has loads of cash)
Simon the cynic.
Physicists get Hadrons!
The disparity of timelines between activities in technology and those in court is staggering. If you look even just at this case and the anti-trust case against Microsoft, they're still arguing about issues in court that have pretty much been steamrolled by technology. As a result, the settlements and results are less than satisfying for anyone other than the lawyers. I mean, Sun and Microsoft have been fighting about this for several years. By now, anyone needing to use a JDK on Windows has set up methods for making sure it's there, and Microsoft has done their entire .NET strategy.
This is almost like divorce arguments where people fight over furniture even though both sides have long since replaced the disputed furniture. When it's over, all that happens is that someone now has a couch they don't have room for.
The Glass is Too Big: My Take on Things
Microsoft dammaged Sun with MSJava, Sun sued to stop it. Sun won and Microsoft started shipping Sun Java. Sun sued to stop that as well. Microsoft shipped no Java, this hurt Sun more then MSJava and was Suns own fault. Sun didn't know when to stop, there was a point where all was well and Microsoft was shipping the right product. Ah well.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
Sun's death would not take Java with it. Quite the contrary, it might just free it up. As for being the only one in the virtual machine market, there are several other companies that produce virtual machines for Java. IBM is one such example, offering both stand alone and clustered VM's. There are several other 3rd party VMs as well as some open source ones.
And, with complete sympathy to those who use Java for developing applets and lament MS' continuing lack of support in their browser, Java's strength, both on the functional and marketable fronts, is on the server-side. Microsoft is still a long way from conquering the middleware/application server market.
Ryosen
One man's "Troll, +1" is another man's "Insightful, +1".
Think about it; think about how little $2B is to MS, compared to 10 years with no harassment from Sun.
William Henry Gates III is the greatest capitalist tactician since John D. Rockefeller. I do not see that as necessarily positive. But, damn, he can sure play the game.
Generally, bash is superior to python in those environments where python is not installed.
From the press release:
"Patents and Intellectual Property: The parties have agreed to a broad covenant not to sue with respect to all past patent infringement claims they may have against each other. The agreement also provides for potential future extensions of this type of covenant. The two companies have also agreed to embark on negotiations for a patent cross-license agreement between them. "
I expect Solaris10-patent/Linux lawsuits to follow. With the MSFT involvement, I think Sun's the next SCO.
They are adding to their mountain of cash at a faster rate then they are taking money out to pay fines/bribes like this one...
I think your points 1 and 2 are not quite right..
.NET and user authentication problems in Window
MS gives Sun some cash
MS gives Sun some loose change it found lying around down the back of BG's sofa.
Sun helps MS fix
Sun accepts that a single sign on is a good thing, ushers in LibertyPassport system....
This show us, once again, that Microsoft can and will buy whatever it wants. Sun now lives on the Redmond food chain. They toe the line or, in the end, they die.
There is only one way to survive against an entity that controls a bottomless pile of cash. That is to NOT be for sale. Any for-profit enterprise, like Sun, is for sale and the Gates machine can buy whatever it wants.
But Gates and his horde can't buy Linux; they can't buy Open Source, they can't buy Free Software. This scares them and, in that, lies our only hope.
Microsoft doesn't just settle for $2bn if there isn't something big in it for them. That's not a matter of money for Microsoft, it's a matter of pride.
What this really amounts to is that Sun is going downhill fast and Microsoft is effectively buying the assets. Sun gets a $2bn infusion of cash and lays of 3300 people. In return, Microsoft gets cross-licenses to Sun's patents. Why would Microsoft be interested in this? Because Sun has lots of patents on Java and VM related technologies that Sun could use to create problems for Microsoft's C#/.NET effort.
If it wasn't already clear to you that Sun was an unreliable partner for OSS work, this "settlement" should bring it into focus.
Farewell Sun.
you were not saints, but you will be missed.
what you did give back will not be forgotten.
More interesting is the possible poison pill of Sun fixing .net and Sun selling windows on their opteron boxes.
Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. -- Carl Sagan
MS had so much cash that they had to get rid of some of it by declaring dividends for the first time ever, not so long ago. I don't think they have a cash problem now or in the foreseeable future.
I don't think you can compare this agreement between MS and Sun, with the EU fine.
.net platform, to drag most Java-lovers to MS .net".
In one case, the amount is the result of a negotiation between the 2 companies (which means the solution they agreed on, is the one that fits better to both companies). IMHO, "$2 billion and intellectual property share" is a way to say "Let's try to get rid of these stinky lawsuits, to finally do some business together, and why not inserting Java in MS
In the other case, it's an unilateral decision of the european law, that is gonna make "jurisprudence" (don't know the word in english, but it's the french word for "now every similar lawsuit will have to take this decision into account, in EU courts").
____
nico
Nico-Live
Why would MS buy Sun? Sun has virtually Zero technologies that MS would care about.
thaen
Earth to Slashdot readers:
Sun's Java Desktop that they are so fervently pushing is LINUX based.
Solaris is a very good OS for servers, but blows for desktops for the most part.
A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.
I'll tell you what I'm smoking:
I very well could be (neither confirm nor deny) an IBM employee (with a silly nickname, to be sure) who is kept WAY too busy helping my customers ditch their old Solaris boxes in favor of pSeries and xSeries servers running Linux. I don't speak for IBM, obviously.
Ask yourself this question: In a typical company that has hundreds of applications and hundreds of servers, just how many of them require the supposedly "advanced features" that only Sun can provide?
The answer is that not many apps require Solaris to run. And the business people are figuring out that even if Linux doesn't have the same feature set that Solaris has, it doesn't matter. They're not using the features anyway.
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
And it's a truly sad day when people can contemplate IBM killing off Sun Micrososystems as if it would be a good thing.
IBM is a mean motherfucker. They are the neighborhood bully who happens to have said "that's pretty cool new bike, Linux" because it's a tactful time to do so. When IBM is finished beating up Sun, perhaps IBM will want that shiney bike for their very own.
But it's fun to cheer them on, for now.
---
Jump into bed with Microsoft and you get the shaft. Happens every time.
Sun had a good run I guess.
Codifex Maximus ~ In search of... a shorter sig.
MS had so much cash that they had to get rid of some of it by declaring dividends for the first time ever, not so long ago. I don't think they have a cash problem now or in the foreseeable future.
They didn't "have to get rid of it" because they had too much cash. They issued dividends for the first time because of the inane tax cut on dividends. So, MS could issue millions/billions worth of dividends (which certainly made large holders (ie the people in charge of this decision) a ton of money) basically tax-free.
But, I agree with your second statement. I don't think they have a cash problem either.