Jousting over Java: Simmering differences between Sun, Microsoft break into open conflict

A lawsuit filed by Sun Microsystems against Microsoft could significantly affect up-and-coming carriers planning to use Java-based applications and the Windows NT operating system as tools for network management and new service introductions.

Sun is suing Microsoft for allegedly failing to adhere to the terms of a licensing agreement the two companies inked in 1995. Sun contends that Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft is trying to change Java into a Windows-only programming language, thereby eliminating the "write once, run anywhere" capabilities that Sun has long touted as Java's greatest asset.

In announcing the suit, Alan Baratz, president of Sun's JavaSoft division, claimed that Microsoft has been altering the Java application programming interfaces (APIs) it distributes by substituting Win32-specific APIs into the Java class libraries of the Java Developers Kit, creating a "sub-species" of Java that works only on Windows platforms.

"Developers will think they are writing Java, but they will in fact be writing in Windows, and their applets will only work with the Explorer 4.0 browser," Baratz alleged. "Our goal is to get Microsoft back into compliance with the original license."

Sun spent more than six months in negotiations with Microsoft to resolve these issues. Still, when Explorer 4.0 was unveiled earlier this month, it was missing two key APIs, and "without these key interfaces, the browser was unable to pass the Java test suites, which all licensed Java products are obligated to pass," Baratz said.

Baratz alleged that Microsoft deliberately altered Java to disable the features that could make Microsoft's Windows software-the software giant's chief source of revenue-irrelevant.

Other software companies, including Netscape, maker of the Navigator browser, are also using versions of Java that aren't completely compatible with different operating systems, but Baratz said none is claiming to be 100% compatible, which is what Microsoft is claiming.

Even before Microsoft signed the licensing agreement to use Java, there were signs of significant friction between the two companies. In December 1995, when Microsoft first unveiled its strategy for the Internet, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Bill Gates said that Microsoft's products would be compatible to a lesser degree with Java and other open languages than with its own languages, a contention that drew immediate fire from Java officials. Full compatibility was another prerequisite of the Java licensing agreement.

Gates, speaking at a software development conference in Frankfurt, Germany, last week, played down both the lawsuit and the importance of Java, saying that Microsoft had "no religion about programming languages."

"Java is a great headline language, and we think it is a good programming language. But in two years, there will be more new ideas," Gates said. That statement could signify bad news for telecom carriers and vendors, which have viewed Java as an important tool in creating applications for gathering and streamlining network management data.

"This is war," said Kimball Brown, senior analyst at San Jose-based market research firm Dataquest. "It's not likely that it will blow up completely, but if it does, there could be a lot of collateral damage."