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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!
Ha ha, very funny. April Fools...no wait, it's the second! Wow, imagine that!
A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
Seriously, not to be a troll. I really think that MS did damage Sun. I wonder if this $2B will give them a profit this quarter. They sure could use one...
Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds. - Albert Einstein
Doubling your available cash assests (Yahoo Finance) will help, but the company is still bleeding money. (Dropping 3,000+ jobs will also help.) Really what this appears to mean is that Microsoft has put Sun on life support so they don't become the only vendor in the virtual machine driven software development market. Imagine the potential antitrust suit if Java wasn't there to compete against dot Net. Frankly, I think this shows that Microsoft thinks it is winning this battle, otherwise they wouldn't have thrown the bone to them.
Sig under construction since 1998.
So does this mean that Windows will start shipping with Java again? Or will Sun kick their own nut sack again and counter sue to stop Microsoft from shipping any version of Java (again)?
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
Seriously ... what's the point of having a place with Windows if there's no Sun out there to light things up? By the way ... Is it still April 1st in some timezone I'm not aware of?
SCO and IBM settled their long standing dispute with IBM agreeing to pay SCO 3 billions and SCO accepting that Linux source code does not belong to them :-)
And Bill Gates and RMS met over a dinner and shared jokes about their college days.
"In questions of science the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual."
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?"
Any general knows that fighting a two front war is a bad thing, and Sun has effectively limited one of the fronts they are fighting on. But, the other front could kill them. IBM has a special mission to kill Sun dead, and they are a formidable foe. With their sweet computers (all of which run Linux) and their low prices, Sun can barely compete.
Sun needed this cash and the break with the fight with Microsoft. But I doubt that in the long run it will be enough. Their Opteron strategy just has to pay off for them if they want to last another 10 years.
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
$2 Billion is the most that Microsoft has EVER payed out to any company. To reach a settlement like this, they may have future plans to do a lot more with Java. Technology sharing...
-- Len
B is for billion, right, not just bucks? wow!
It certainly didn't hurt Sun's stock. Up ~20% today
Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana.
Microsoft has continuously tried to defeat Linux by forcing features on users that are incompatible with Linux, while Linux produces a workaround or a compatability layer. Well, this would be one less thing to try and workaround.
I don't think this is an advantage for Microsoft as now .NET developers can choose to use hybrid Java/.NET solutions that both do authentication depending on which language is the better choice for that task.
Kinetic stupidity has a new brand leader: Allen Zadr.
So, what's the catch?
After all the rancor over the last few years the wording of the press release is so mechical...I wonder if you can see Scott McNealy's new borg implant blinking in the video coverage.
When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.
I notice a number of people commenting on the balance of Microsoft's cash on hand. I believe that we will witness erosion of the giant rather than the instant destruction. A billion here five hundred million there, a few lost customers, a few governmental restrictions, pressure to give deep discounts they all add up and over time the surplus will erode away. How are they going to fight when they can't throw money at their problems, when they can't afford to take a loss in furtherance of their strangle hold?
i believe the most interesting line is:
Sun is also satisfied that the agreements announced today satisfy the objectives it was pursuing in the EU actions pending against Microsoft.
As Sun was the major complaining competitor in the EU case, this gives M$ a lot of fire support when trying to challenge the record fine. Another indication is the timing: shortly after the EU announced the fine.
Regards, Martin
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.
$2,000,000,000 changes a person.
Sun settles with Microsoft, cuts 3,300 jobs
.Net Web services technology "dot-Not." He often used the world "hairball" in describing Microsoft's proprietary software.
http://www.yahoo.com/_ylh=X3oDMTB1c2ZmZzF2BF9TAz I3 MTYxNDkEdGVzdAMwBHRtcGwDbnMtYmV0YQ--/s/171067
Sun Settles With Microsoft, Cuts Jobs
17 minutes ago
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By MAY WONG, AP Technology Writer
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Struggling server maker Sun Microsystems Inc. reached a sweeping, $1.6 billion settlement with Microsoft Corp. and said it plans to cooperate with its longtime nemesis, a company it had branded an unrepentant monopolist.
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The surprise agreement was accompanied by an announcement Friday by Sun that it is cutting 3,300 jobs and that its net loss for the fiscal third quarter will be wider than expected. The cuts represent 9 percent of its total work force of more than 35,000.
The "broad cooperating agreement" with Microsoft ends Sun's $1 billion private antitrust suit against the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant. Sun's complaints also helped spark the investigation that led to the European Union (news - web sites)'s recent record fine against Microsoft.
"It puts peace on the table in a big way," said Scott McNealy, Sun's chief executive, during a conference call Friday.
As part of the deal, Microsoft will pay Sun $700 million to resolve the antitrust case, which was scheduled to go to trial in January 2006, and $900 million to resolve patent issues. Sun and Microsoft also will pay royalties for each others' technologies.
"Our companies will continue to compete hard, but this agreement creates a new basis for cooperation that will benefit the customers of both companies," said Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive officer.
Sun's biggest claim -- and the main charge in its antitrust against Microsoft -- involved the Java programming environment Sun created to allow software to run on all computers regardless of the operating system.
Sun said Microsoft violated its license agreement by creating its own version of Java, thus making it less universal. Though a settlement of that case was reached, both sides ended up in court again after Microsoft said it planned to stop supporting Java.
Under Friday's agreement, Microsoft "may continue to provide product support" for its version of the software, called Microsoft Java Virtual Machine.
The deal also creates cooperation between the companies in the technical area of Web-based applications and user identity management between Sun and Microsoft servers. Sun also agreed to sign a license that will allow its software to better communicate with Windows-based desktop computers.
The agreement settles Sun's complaint over Microsoft's server communications that led to the EU's decision against Microsoft last month. That ruling also was based on Microsoft's bundling of its media player with its ubiquitous Windows operating system, though Sun did not play a role in that complaint.
"Sun is also satisfied that the agreements announced today satisfy the objectives it was pursuing in the EU actions pending against Microsoft," Sun said in a statement Friday.
The agreement is an unprecedented change in the relationship between the two companies.
Sun's McNealy often railed against Microsoft, repeatedly calling Microsoft a monopoly and its
But the anti-Microsoft rants quieted in recent months, as Sun struggled to post a profit and the companies worked at resolving the issues between them. On Friday, Sun executives s
Shit. Sun sold their soul. See the press-release: "Microsoft Support for Java: The companies have agreed that Microsoft may continue to provide product support for the Microsoft Java Virtual Machine that customers have deployed in Microsoft's products".
Dear Scott, now that you've sold your soul, have dealt with the devil: what's next? DOT-NET compatibility layers for Java? Cooperation with Unisys to provider 32-CPU servers for Windows Datacenter edition? IMHO you've just destroyed your lifework, no wonder all your buddies left your company in the last years...
This is just sad.
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.
From the article:
Legal Settlements: The two companies are settling and terminating their lawsuit in the United States. Sun is also satisfied that the agreements announced today satisfy the objectives it was pursuing in the EU actions pending against Microsoft.
[ emphasis was added by me ]
I thought Sun was the primary driver behind the whole thing in the first place. What's going to happen now?
AirSpeak - http://itunes.com/apps/AirSpeak
I read the press release and this is what I get out of it:
.NET and user authentication problems in Windows
MS gives Sun some cash
Sun helps MS fix
Sun sells Windows on Sun Xeon and Opteron boxes
Sun hands over any good ideas they have left
Sun never sues MS ever again for their illegal business practices.
I can only hope that this news will run SUNW up high enough so I can finally get out.
burnin
This deal reminds me of the Apple/Microsoft deal. If you can't beat 'em, give them a whole lot of money to become "technical partners."
I wonder how StarOffice for Windows fits into this? I doubt that it's going to be around to much longer.
This would also explain why Sun doesn't want to open source Java.
I would hope not; but this seems like an interesting fear. Seems Sun is the last Unix vendor left whose strategy is based on a very large R&D investment in a proprietary Unix; and it is in both their interest and Microsoft's for Sun to protect this investment.
Sun gets $2B and both parties agree to share intellectual property
Compare this $2B with the $600M fine levied by the European Union. The difference between the two values is revealing, and can be intepreted in two ways. Either the EU judgement was yet another fudge, and Microsoft have once more got off lightly after being convicted of monopoly abuse.
Or, a large part of the intellectual property sharing is a Java payoff. In particular, Sun may have agreed to waive any complaints regarding the fact that C# is lifted from Java, in return for the large pile of cash.
Personally, I think both explainations are equally probable, and the reality is an admixture of the two.
Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
He'd get the same result, no doubt. The problem is, what in some cultures is called 2 billion is in others called 2 thousand million, and in the latter 2 billion means what in the former 2 trillion means.
"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
- Applets are one of the worst technologies ever wrought on the Web. ActiveX is about as bad, and Push was bad but at least we didn't have to ever use it. If Applets will now be outdated too, maybe there will be less of them. This is good for Microsoft (less Java) and for Sun (less embarassing Java).
- JVMs change constantly. The JVM I write my app for is probably not the one you wrote yours for. Rarely do people deploy Java assuming it ought to run - they specify a JVM it's intended for, and often demand you install that JVM and point to it for their software. JVMs coexist very peacefully. The point is, there's no sense in Windows shipping with a JVM - you're just going to go around it with each Java product you install anyway.
Now, is this deal is actually good for both companies? Microsoft tends to make a very poor bed partner - they give you sweaty sheets for a few months and then throw everything you own out the window. Just look at how they've turned their backs on nVidia after the Xbox partnership - and Microsoft bashers can provide many more historical examples. Sun will need a very strong strategy that leverages the benefits of the combined technology beyond Microsoft's reach if they intend to gain from this - like the way nVidia used Microsoft's money to launch into the motherboard market.Several things stand out.
1. 900 Million of the award was to resolve patent issues. That's a pretty huge number (in fact it's the highest patent violation settlement I have ever seen.
2."Sun and Microsoft have agreed to pay royalties for use of each other's technology, with Microsoft making an up-front payment of $350 million and Sun making payments when this technology is incorporated into its server products." So MS and Sun have a cross licensing aggreement and SUN will pay them when the technology is incorporated.
The total award is actually 1.6 Billion. The 350 Million mentioned in the article is the first upfront payment. The cross licensing of patents is the important feature of the settlement. The collaboration is less newsworthy as it was mandated by the settlement with the DOJ.
Thalasar
Basically, if you need the client to do some processing then you are relegatedt to Java (WebStart or otherwise) or JavaScript, .NET, or (gasp) an ActiveX (flash qualifies as an ActiveX product).
None of these methods are exactly clean, but from many user's perspective the ancient - built in to most I.E. Java 1.1 - is the most convenient.
Kinetic stupidity has a new brand leader: Allen Zadr.
SUNW's market capital is $16.01B at 50% of that is $8.005B. Minus the $1.2B, MSFT could buy majority control of SUNW for $6.805B + $1. Hmm it seems that MSFT has something up its sleeve.
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.
I'm no conspiracy theorist but it's just a little odd that Sun decided not to go open source with Java and now Microsoft seems to be settling so easily ($2,000,000,000 seems like a payoff)... What really bothers me is the part that says "both parties agree to share intellectual property."
;)
All I'm waiting for now is to see how difficult open source implementation of scripting for Java will become.
Moderators: When in doubt, mod Interesting
Business \Busi"ness\, n.;
A scam in which all people involved perceive as beneficial...
- In the U.S. "billion" is 10^9. (10^12 is called "trillion".)
- In the U.K. "billion" is 10^12. (10^9 is called "thousand million".)
- I dunno about the rest of the world.
However, even though the Register is apparently a U.K. entity, I don't think anyone believes that M$ is going to pay Sun 2*10^12 dollars. $2*10^9 is already a huge amount of money. $2*10^12 is an ungodly amount of money.You write your nine symphonies, then you die.
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.
Two points, catered to delivering Java-powered client applications to John Q. Public effortlessly (let's face it; that's what applets did):
Up until now, you could release a Java 1.1.x compatible *application* (no security sandbox) without worrying about Granny Smith even having been able to spell jre when she was downloading. That's a good thing. 1.1.x is plenty to check and see if there's a Java 2 JRE laying around, and helping Granny get it if you absolutely need it.
Which brings me to point 2... Do you really *need* Java 2, or do you just want it? Admittedly Swing is a little buggy on 1.1.4 [if you include swingall.jar], which is as far as MS's VM got before the mess started, but Oracle still ships a version of 1.1.8 to power its management tools. There's very little you can't do with 1.1.x, especially once you've got the Collections API in the mix.
I've seen emails go across the Apple Java Development mailing list saying things like, "Our boss says we *have* to have generics, so Macs and their 1.4.x JVM are right out for development." Look, these are things you've been happily *not* using for all of Java's existence, that older code still works in 1.5, yet you're moving the whole of your development over b/c you think a new, just out of beta feature is cool? "As if source code rusted."
This settlement is great news for Java on the desktop. The longer you can keep more of your code 1.1 friendly, the longer you can deploy effortlessly on Windows. That window had almost closed, and now it's back, wide open.
And from the press release, though I'm not so optimistic to believe it'll necessarily be the case, there's nothing ruling out MS's installation of a newer version of Sun's jre by default in the future. Heck, it ain't jre's or clr's that boost an OS, it's, "Developers, developers, developers, developers." Maybe MS sees the more the merrier, and would prefer things like Sun's Mad Hatter not gain any special traction. Reminds me a little of AOL dropping Mozilla (which it based the OS X AOL client on as proof of concept in the Great Game of 0110 Chicken 2003) the second after MS relicensed them the IE engine.
It's all 0s and 1s. Or it's not.
Farewell Sun.
you were not saints, but you will be missed.
what you did give back will not be forgotten.
As usual, this comment is almost correct, but not quite. Please try not to oversimplify if you don't know what you are talking about. The reason Sun had MS stop distributing the JRE was because the only JRE MS could legally distribute when they had to include it in the OS was JRE 1.1.8. If you at all know about the Java industry, JRE 1.1.8 came out pre-1998 and Java is about to release 1.5 after 1.2.x, 1.3.x, and 1.4.x. So, if you were a company that wants developers to use the latest and greatest in what Java has to offer in their applets, then you definitely don't want JRE 1.1.8 being distributed. This is crippling the devolpment of at most applet development in the whole scheme of things that Java is used for. As a developer, you would have to consider this if you want to include as many people as possible into your web audience, which in effect forces development to pre-1999 levels of Java for applet development. That sucks.
/.er's, don't be so gullible to reward stupid rhetoric. For all we know, this person is an MS fanboy and purposefully not mentioning details that would otherwise make things a little clearer to form an opinion on. Either it's that, or this person is lazy and stupid and doesn't do his homework before opening his big mouth. So, do your due dilligence before repeating corporate bullshit, you mimic.
Not sure who considers your comment insightful as it is very vaque. Come on
Looks like Sun might have gone from "Teetering on irrelevancy" to "Embraced, Extended and Extinguished." At least they got some cash to cushion the golden parachutes.
Germany: 10^6=million, 10^9=milliarde,10^12=billion and so forth. A lot of people have trouble with this when translating business news from the US :)
In the U.K. "billion" is 10^12. (10^9 is called "thousand million".)
Historically, yes, but the US billion is now widespread. I'm not even convinced that the old UK billion (10^12) is a UK standard anymore:
Britain and Australia traditionally employed the international usage of 10^12, but have recently largely switched to the U.S. version of 10^9.
(from everyone's favourite encyclopaedia: wikipedia)
This is where the serious fun begins.
Sun has plenty of money already. They are not cash-starved, and in fact have been in a very strong position on their balance sheet for a while. It just might be that the reason M$ paid them is because the case was going poorly for them...how's that for an idea?
Sun is also still doing ok, considering the global recession. They're hanging in, still advancing and doing lots of R&D, and once things pick up again in a year or such they'll be ready.
How many of you chicken littles know anything about Solaris10, the new sparcs, chip2chip, or any of the other things that really have little to do with java? Java is NOT Sun's only product. When someone buys a sun server, they're not thinking about java. Sun originally got market share with a rep for cheap prices and awesome customer service. Their service is still great, but they weren't able to keep processor prices down in comparison with buying them from intel. However, they still have the most solid systems, as far as I'm concerned (they're very expensive now, but less so than the same quality elsewhere). And you can get a 4-way server from Sun cheaper than you can from even Dell...and Dell's rep is crap (would you *expect* a dell box to be running without a reboot after 5 years?). They are picking up some of the ideas that got them big in the beginning, and effectively implimenting them.
Just because Sun got 2B from M$, doesn't mean they're dead...yeeesh...it means they got 2B from M$.
Here is a Bloomberg news link
"In October, Merrill Lynch & Co. analyst Steven Milunovich suggested Sun put Schwartz in a position to talk to the public more and called him ``brilliant.''
McNealy has resisted slashing more jobs. Merrill's Milunovich had called the company a ``bloated, underachieving, unfocused'' business and said it needs to eliminate 7,000 workers.
Sun has had their market share eroded on both sides - Microsoft and Open source *nixes. Even a $1.6 Billion US is not going to be enough to prop them up. And who knows if SCO has their eyes on that money!
Have you Meta Moderated t
This is bad for SUNW and the shareholders, no doubt. Yes, McNeally and friends do get a lifeline of cash, but I'm sure MSFT is aware that they're merely postponing the inevitable.
What this means IMO is that SUNW is a more viable takeover target than they were 24 hours ago.
Granted, they could buy back shares with the new cash (and may want to, for many reasons), but the underlying business plan is very vulnerable. Linux is eating Solaris' lunch, and a custom hardware solution isn't cutting it today in the marketplace. (I know, Sun servers are fun to work with, quite reliable, blah blah blah. But I know a few organizations that are abandoning Solaris for Linux, if only for the price advantage.)
I'd be looking for suitors right about now, if I were part of SUNW's mgmt. team. (Or I'd flip off everyone in Mountain View and unfurl the golden parachute, depending on what kind of bastard I felt like that day.)
So here's an idea to debate: another Unix vendor is desperately trying to break into the server and enterprise computing market. Assuming that said vendor has the cash and the will to use it (big assumptions there, I know), would this be a worthwhile strategy to pursue?
--- The American Way of Life is not a birthright. Hell, it's not even sustainable.
How did their last, legal, "agreement" go? How about almost every company Microsoft signs "agreements" with and isn't a full fledged MSFT follower?
.Nyet
.....
Sun should have taken the money and walked away. Now, Sun is supposed to get the EU to back off, raise it's hand when the DOJ asks how signed up for MSFT's IP licensing and to a few other dances....All the while, Sun is supposed to be pushing Linux( Java Desktop ) and Solaris?????
This looks like more bad business on Sun's part. They'll be back in court or out of business and either way, Microsoft will wins because:
1) They'll have had Sun to help reduce pressure from the EU and US/DOJ
2) Distracted Sun by thinking it will get it's software to interoperate with Microsofts and Sun will lose more customers while gaining few->none.
3) Microsoft might get access to some of Sun's Java code too and that might help with some migrations from J2EE to
4)
IMHO.
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
Hey, Xfree did it. Why shouldn't Sun?
Corel killed their Linux distro within a few months of taking the M$ bailout.
Obama's legacy: (N)othing (S)ecure (A)nywhere and (T)error (S)imulation (A)dministration
and see if SMI's internal Linux camp weren't among the 3000 shown the door. Note that the settlement included Imperial certification for SMI's x86 machinery. See if we ever hear anything more from Sun about Linux. This deal was all about sharing _proprietary_ technologies, all will be under NDA and NONE will ever filter out into FOSS.
Exceeding the recommended torque is not recommended.
The interesting bit here is whether or not Microsoft just fell on their own sword. They've just set a precedent with a $2bn settlement over anti-trust and intellectual property!
If indeed this was a tactic to evade censure by the EU, they may have just openened themselves up to much bigger problems by providing a rock-solid precedent to other competitors.
I noticed the EU fine timing also.
My supposition is this. Sun had just proved that it could hound/"assist" the global legal system into fining Microsoft 600 million.
The $2 billion valuation figure for leaving Microsoft alone wasn't arrived at until it was clear what financial penalties Sun could (indirectly) cause to Microsoft if they persisted in pursuing them legally.
By agreeing to shell out $2 billion, Microsoft is pragmatically admitting that it would be subject to at least that many fines going forward if Sun kept pursuing the matter over the next decade.
(Microsoft *did* eviscerate the Java platform by tying IE to windows and trying to change the behavior of Java base clases rather than just adding easily recognized com.ms.* classes as its original contract clearly encouraged. All in all, a $2 billion settlement to kill off the biggest platform competitor to threaten them in a decade isn't *that* bad for someone of MS's size.)
--LP
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.
As part of the deal, Sun has also agreed to cripple Java by making Java applications really ugly and slow, and...
Oh, wait, never mind.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
If you want to see the settlement clearly, think of Bill Gates bending over with his pants down.
Sun got just about everything it wanted, including $1.6 Billion in what amount to fines plus another $350 million in advance royalties on IP to be used by MS. That's $1,950 million - real money even for MS and just about one third of Sun's cash and short term securities before these payments are counted.
The cash, however, is less important than three pieces in the agreement: one giving Sun the right to license and access MS protocols at preset prices, one committing MS to inter-operability on identification and authentication, and the other preventing mutual lawsuits for ten years.
The importance of the licensing issue is in the access to information side of it. What this means is that open source products like SAMBA can continue to succeed regardless of MS's wishes in the matter.
The importance of the inter-operability issue lies in the fact that Sun is the driving force behind a range of open identity technologies - including the use of the SAML as a message carrier instead of an RPC vehicle. MS, of course, wants to do its own, very controlled and proprietary, thing with identity and authentication and this agreement will let them do it, but force them to maintain compatibility with the open standard right alongside their proprietary one -leaving the choice to customers and developers; all of whom can see exploding growth opportunities on the open side and little beyond the RIAA on the MS side.
The third key piece, the no mutual lawsuits clause, probably won't stand long but represents an initial layer of legal protection against use of the courts to legitimize cheating by either side - and, of course, we need to interpret this in terms of a history in whuch MS has just agreed to pay Sun 1.6 Billion to compensate for past cheating.
I'd been a huge Sun fan for quite some time, but let's face it, they have a hand in their own troubles.
When Solaris came out they removed the C compiler and they were never really commited to the x86 product, like they could have should have been. Then the bought Cobalt and drove that right into the ground.
I remeber being told during the dot bomb years by one of the NYC reps that Sun will never be in the Linux general purpose market, Cobalts are only appliances.
They may not be dead, but neither was Novell. There will be the hard case hangers on.
They also remind me of IBM's loss of the PC field. Arguably NOT a M$ issue, just management short sightedness.
Now I just find Suns to be an inconvenience, suitable for some of the larger apps only. But then - why not go w/ HP?
True friends are hard to come by... I need more money. - Calvin