By Siobhan Kennedy
With Java author James Gosling back on the stand in Washington yesterday, Microsoft’s attorney sought to prove that Sun, alongside Microsoft, had integrated its web browser technology, Hot Java, into its operating system (OS), Solaris. Redmond attorney, Tom Burt, used a series of Sun press releases, handbooks and web-based documentation to show that the company had deliberately added its Hot Java browser into the Solaris OS in exactly the same way as Microsoft had done with its browser, Internet Explorer (IE). During the cross examination, Burt showed the court information contained within Sun’s Information Library for Solaris 2.6. In the paper, under a section entitled Why upgrade to the Solaris 2.6 Release, Sun cites as one of the main reasons the fact that the Hot Java browser is an easy-to-use, customizable, user interface for exploring the Internet and corporate intranets. The same benefit was printed in both the Solaris for Intel platforms and the Solaris for Sparc platforms documentation, Burt said. Then, from Sun’s web site, the attorney produced a section from the Solaris products page where Sun details a new version of Solaris, called Web-enhanced Solaris. Turning to the section entitled Ease of Use, Burt read aloud: For power desktop users, the Web-enhanced Solaris operating environment features changes….including the ability to store, mail and launch URLs with a click of the mouse. And from another section, he read: This is the first release of the Solaris operating environment to have Java software built in as an integral part of the operating environment. By integrating, you could provide users with a better interface, isn’t that true? Burt asked Gosling. He replied: When it talks about Java being built in, it doesn’t mean anything stronger than the JVM (Java Virtual Machine) being built on top of the operating system, like an application. Nowhere did it say that it was part of the OS. He added, It [the browser] is an absolutely replaceable, repluggable application, like any other. Customers can very easily use another [browser].
Microsoft kept out of JNI development loop
With that argument going nowhere and Gosling refusing to budge, Burt turned his attention to Java, and in particular the development of Sun’s JNI (Java Native Interface). Here, the attorney did his best to prove that Sun had always discouraged developers from using its native code, but when the company began work on a new standard, JNI, it deliberately kept Microsoft out of the development loop. In a series of emails between Sun and Microsoft executives, Burt tried to show that Microsoft was ready and willing to work with Sun on JNI but that Sun blatantly ignored its efforts, choosing instead to collude with Netscape who then, ironically, didn’t (or couldn’t says Sun) implement JNI. Sun had no intention of working with Microsoft to jointly develop a native interface did it? asked Burt. To which Gosling replied: We felt that the stuff Microsoft was working on was totally Windows specific. It was completely non-portable and only worked on the Windows platform. If there was evidence that wasn’t the case, then it might have been possible for us to engage in conversations. Gosling said it was a widely held view with Sun that Microsoft was trying to disable people from writing Java applications on any other platform. We had no specific objections with Microsoft developing a Windows native interface, he said, but we did have problems with them changing the technical specifications such that it meant developers couldn’t use their applications on different platforms. Time and time again, Burt insisted that Microsoft had repeatedly asked to be part of the development of JNI. To illustrate the point, he showed the court an email in which Microsoft’s Russ Arun had asked specifically asked to be kept in the loop about discussions of the next native interface. But not long after, he showed that Sun, in an email, had gone ahead to form a JNI working group in which were included all the big industry players – Intel, Novell, Netscape, IBM, Apple, Hewlett Packard among others- bar Microsoft. But Gosling told the court: Microsoft was pushing COM, so when it came to setting up the group, since Microsoft had said it wasn’t interested in doing anything that was a cross-platform design, it wasn’t included. Although Microsoft has consistently argued that its COM interface would be cross platform, Gosling said any movement in that direction has been undetectable. Later, the attorney told the court that Sun had effectively taken Netscape’s native Java interface, JRI, and molded it into the current JNI. But the irony is that to this day, Netscape doesn’t even support the interface itself. Gosling, however, said Netscape had every intention of supporting the interface. We’re forgiving of the difficulties they’re experiencing [supporting JNI]. We believed they were working honorably and at no point, like Microsoft, did it publicly say in a press release that it would never support JNI. But it was Microsoft who got the last laugh. As the day’s session drew to an end, Burt submitted his last piece of evidence for the day; an email from a Netscape employee to Eric Schmidt entitled Netscape’s sneaky move. To bubbling laughter around the courtroom, Burt read: This episode illustrates why I think throwing our lot back in with Netscape is foolish. They are completely untrustworthy. They don’t do what they say they will and they do what they say they won’t. No agreement with Netscape is worth the ink it’s written with. Go sign a deal with Saddam Hussein. It has a better chance of being honored. รก
