Microsoft attacked in wake of $20m Java settlement

Microsoft has come under fire in the wake of its $20m Java settlement with Sun, with analysts claiming it has 'seriously missed the point'.

The long-running court case may have ended with a Sun victory, but Microsoft should stop treating this issue as a religious war, they claim. Dirk Coburn, research director for Java and XML at IDC, said: "This whole contest played out over Java proves that Microsoft does not get it." Gary Barnett, director of research for Northern America at Ovum, added: "Microsoft is taking a big risk in not taking advantage of the settlement to change its stance on Java. More people are developing on Java than any other language. It is not the best programming language and it does not cure all ills but it has some extraordinarily powerful friends." Since it agreed to the costly out of court settlement, Microsoft has claimed the development of C# - its own cross-platform language - means it can now do without Java. "The settlement has little impact on us," said a Microsoft spokeswoman. Mat Hanrahan, technology analyst at Bloor Research, agreed, claiming C# is a strong weapon for the software giant. "This case has frozen Microsoft's Java tools for three years and in those years the company has developed C#. This language takes a lot of what people found attractive about Java and builds on it. But it is tailored to the Windows environment - it's a spoiling action." Ovum's Barnett also pointed out that Sun's behavior should sound a note of warning throughout the industry. "It's a useful reminder that Java is proprietary and Sun can sue left, right and centre if you break the license agreement. Java is a long way from being truly open. But it does not matter if one technology is better, more open or proprietory - what matters is adoption, broad industry support and the range of applications for that tool." IDC's Dirk Coburn agreed. "These standards are not stronger through proprietorship or extension but commonality. People with the dollars want openness and interoperability," he said.