Microsoft's decision to drop its Java Virtual Machine from Windows XP has resulted in a fresh wave of accusations about the software giant's continuing abuse of its monopoly position in the desktop operating system market.
The accusations come at the same time that Microsoft seeks an appeals court re-examination of its ruling that the company illegally commingled code for its Internet Explorer browser and the Windows OS.
Microsoft's request follows recent moves by the Justice Department and the 18 states behind the case to get the appeals court to expedite the case back to the US District Court ahead of schedule.
On Friday, Microsoft asked the US Court of Appeals to deny that request and to return the case to the lower court. It also said it was still considering whether to seek a Supreme Court review of the case. The government has said it will not seek Supreme Court review of the case at this time.
'Same old, same old'?
While some developers say the impact on Java users will probably be minimal, with the greatest aggravation being that they would first have to take the time to download a JVM from Microsoft or Sun Microsystems, others view the matter very differently.
Alex Hochberger, CEO of Feratech, a development shop in Boston, said he doubted Microsoft would make it easy to download the JVM from its Web site. He also said Microsoft knows many users would not bother to download the technology, opting instead to move away from Java.
"It was this type of maneuver that shows that Microsoft has learned little from its court battle over antitrust issues," Hochberger said. "That's why the DOJ and state attorneys general need to continue to aggressively pursue Microsoft."
David Harrah, group manager for Java public relations at Sun agreed.
"It is our opinion that they are reverting back to previous behavior that has already been judged illegal and upheld on appeal," Harrah said. "There seemed for a moment to be a new Microsoft recently, when they allowed PC makers to control the destiny of the startup screen, but this is just further evidence of the same old, same old."
But Microsoft spokesman Tom Pilla maintains the Redmond, company is not completely ditching Java in Windows XP.
"Anyone who wants Java support in XP will be able to get it," Pilla told eWEEK. "PC manufacturers are free to install it, while end users can download the Microsoft JVM from the Web. In addition, XP will recognise and keep the JVM for all those customers who upgrade from Windows 2000 and other versions of the operating system where it was included."
Microsoft has also moved to block the ability of Java applets to run by default within the Outlook client. Andrew Shikiar, director of Possie (People for Open, Safe and Secure Internet and E-mail), said its testing shows that the existing VM is not recognized by Internet Explorer after upgrading to XP from Windows NT, Windows 98 or Windows 2000.
"These tests certainly create an early concern that the disablement of Java is going to be a bigger issue," Shikiar said. "Beyond the VM download issue, users will still be denied Java due to little-known changes to security settings and their definitions in XP.
"The bottom line is that Microsoft should provide the same, base-level Java support that corporate customers and consumers have come to depend on with previous Windows releases. Java has proven to be a secure environment that simply doesn't deserve such restrictions."
Microsoft's Pilla said the legal settlement between Microsoft and Sun over the use of Java technology "further constrained" Microsoft from upgrading its version 1.1.4 JVM and would prove difficult to support in XP.
But Sun's Harrah said Microsoft's claim that this move was inevitable as a result of its legal settlement "is hogwash and untrue. The settlement gave Microsoft the right to redistribute that JVM for seven years. They made a unilateral decision to drop it," he said.
Sun currently provides a fully supported, high-performance Windows virtual machine as part of the latest Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition release 1.3 and will continue to provide Windows support in the future.
