Windows XP to Drop Java Support

[Warren Togami]

Translation: Microsoft says, "Let's destroy Sun, and push for faster
adoption of .NET so we can charge everyone money on the services built on
.NET."

However, this move may not be entirely bad.  The Microsoft JVM has been
rather old and incompatible with all other JVM brands for quite a while.
(And if you ever coded in Java AWT, you would know that it mangles your
applet layout when compared to other JVM's.)  Perhaps now OEM's will ship
new Windows computers with Sun's latest JVM instead.  Let's hope this
backfires against Microsoft.  Also, installing the plugin should be as easy
as Flash or Shockwave, something that most web surfers do anyway.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2790355,00.html

(quotes from the article)

"A Microsoft spokesman said Java support was diminished for "business
reasons" and noted that it follows last year's legal dispute with Java's
creator, Sun Microsystems Inc. Under terms of a settlement with Sun,
Microsoft was given the right to continue to use early versions of Sun's
Java code in Microsoft products for seven years, but made no commitment to
do so."

"After Windows XP is launched in October, users will be directed to download
a plug-in from Microsoft's Web site (www.microsoft.com) to make Java-based
programs work. Without this step, "any Web page that contains Java
applications will not run -- it will be a dead page," said Jan Vitek, a
professor of computer science at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind.
"This favors Microsoft's new technologies, and will inconvenience
consumers," he said."

"For Web-based businesses, Vitek added, "if you want your Web page
accessible to the largest number of people, you may want to drop Java" and
switch to Microsoft's competing set of products, which is under development
and is known as .Net."
"Because Java is designed for use across different operating systems,
Microsoft has long viewed it as a threat to its Windows monopoly, and the
technology has played a central role in the U.S. antitrust case. Among its
findings in the case three weeks ago, a unanimous federal appeals court in
Washington D.C. ruled that Microsoft had engaged in a deceptive and
predatory campaign to cripple Java technology."