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Sun keeps its foot in Java's door

Could Microsoft's COOL unseat the language?

By Steven Brody and <em>sunworld</em>, JavaWorld.com, 04/01/99

Page 2 of 2

If you listen to Sun tell it, the last time Microsoft tried to compete with Java, it was through the development of a "polluted Java" in the form of the Visual J++ development tool. Microsoft, alleges Sun, released VJ++ in the hope that developers would unwittingly build Java-like applications that were incompatible with Sun's "pure Java." That case has yet to be resolved, but Sun did win an injunction against future Microsoft Java-branded products based on VJ++.

This time, Redmond may be taking a more direct approach.

About the time of the injunction, Microsoft leaked news of the development of a new C++ object-oriented programming language, code-named "COOL," integrated with the company's COM+ technology (an expansion of COM).

Details on COOL have not been forthcoming, according to Gartner Group analyst David Smith, but Microsoft has not denied the program. Smith suspects the language will differ from Java in at least one key respect: It will not be a cross-platform language.

"Microsoft's strategy is Windows, so cross-platform for them means Windows 95, NT, and 98," said Smith.

COOL could be competitive on a language level, he added, but the only company with the market presence to unseat Java will still have an uphill battle due to flagging credibility.

If and when COOL appears, it may be an all-or-nothing proposition, as Microsoft appears to be abandoning Java altogether, said Gartner Group, pointing to the fact that the beta release of Internet Explorer 5.0 does not install the Microsoft JVM by default.

Chai, anyone?

Hewlett-Packard isn't planning a Microsoft-style coup, but the company's position has been divided on Java. Although HP has licensed Java from Sun, publicly the company is committed to its ChaiVM technology, an independently developed embedded virtual machine optimized for consumer devices.

ChaiVM is more innocuous than VJ++ or COOL, says HP, as it complies with the JVM specification, and its source code can be licensed from HP.

HP has criticized Sun for stifling Java development and was a key player in the Java Real Time Working Group's petition to assume management of the development of Java realtime extensions.

Fragmentation of Java also could come from the only entity without a commercial interest in the language -- the open source community itself. Gartner Group predicts that hackers will attempt to produce a freeware version of Java by 2002 that is not based on Sun's implementation, under the GNU General Public License.

 

Improve efficiency with Visual Studio(r) 2010 Beta 2. - Microsoft

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