Fun_People Archive
12 Dec
Sun beats Microsoft at their own game

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 97 15:30:16 -0800
To: Fun_People
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Subject: Sun beats Microsoft at their own game

[Well, this time, anyway... -psl]

Forwarded-by: "m.b.komor" <mbkomor@remarque.org>
Forwarded-by: gstone@oacis.com (Glenn Stone)
From: http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly/
> December 11, 1997
>
> Activator
> Microsoft had to swallow the bitterest of coffee grinds at Internet
> World yesterday, when Sun Microsystems announced the release of Activator -
> a new tool that allows any browser to update itself for compatibility
> with pure Java. Previously, Java-based applications were browser-
> specific: users of Netscape or Internet Explorer weren't guaranteed
> the ability to run all Java programs. The tug-of-war over the
> "write-once, run-anywhere" programming language was addressed in
> court in October, when Sun accused Microsoft of supplying an incompatible
> version of Java in Internet Explorer 4.0 in order to control the market.
> The problem now appears to have been solved out of court with this
> technical workaround, which is being distributed for free off Sun's web
> site (they've even created a bit of HTML that will force non-compliant
> browsers to auto-install a copy of it). Such aggressive maneuvering is
> normally the purview of Microsoft, and the boys in Redmond are surely
> fuming over this bitter medicine - and plotting their revenge.
> -- By Noah Robischon


From: "John H. Lederer"  <network2d-l@austin.onu.edu>

Sun's counter to Microsft building a java virtual machine that is
incompatible with Java is a java program that determies whether the
user's computer has an incompatible java virtual machine, If so, it
downloads a compatible one.  Says Microsft:

            "Having software mysteriously search a user's
            machine and then replace it with something it views as
            kosher, isn't what Microsoft's about. We believe in
            customer choice," he said.

Right.

© 1997 Peter Langston