Network Computingwww.networkcomputing.com

When: April 3, 2003

What: Microsoft asks federal appeals court to reverse a lower court's ruling that requires Microsoft to include Sun's Java with Windows XP. Sun maintains that "extraordinary cases require extraordinary remedies."

FUDFactor: The courts and Sun believe that including Java with XP will help to right the wrongs created by Microsoft's anticompetitive practices.

FUDBust: We'd love to see Sun announce that even though the lower court ruled against Microsoft, Sun won't take a position on appeal because Java is such a strong technology that Microsoft won't be able to keep people away from it. That's the high road.

That won't happen because even Sun knows that Java has its place and that place isn't the desktop. Compared with native code, Java on the desktop is bloated and slow; it has been for years, and we believe it always will be. So why is Sun so intent on pushing this issue in the courts? It wants to punish Microsoft. How will you benefit if Sun wins? You won't.

As long as Sun is spending its resources on adjudication rather than innovation, Microsoft will maintain the upper hand.

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