Last week the judge in the Sun vs. Microsoft private antitrust case was considering whether to force MS to put the JVM as a standard bundle into Windows. Dave's comment was right on the mark on this:

[...] Sheez, I'd love to bundle Radio with Windows. How about it? Why aren't they clubbing me in the knees? What makes Java so special? [...]

. While I don't think that Radio is better than Java as Dave says, <wink> I do think he is absolutely right when he questions why one thing should be forcibly included and not the other. Forcing these things through the courts is not the way to go, since it would tilt the field in favor of the big guys as usual (who can afford to pay for armies of lawyers) and it only creates infighting between the smaller players, which is never beneficial (Note, for example, how this article talks --near the end-- about how Sun will have to drive Corel out of the Office Software market before making any headway). In fact, I'm not even sure that I would like Java to win its position in this way: it would be like attaching itself to the Windows monopoly, forcing its way just like MS forces its way with its own products by leveraging Windows, doing exactly what we have accussed Microsoft of doing. We should teach by example. We should win this by creating better software, easier to use, simpler, secure, inherently multiplatform, inexpensive, and more interoperable. I think we're on our way.

Categories: technology
Posted by diego on December 7 2002 at 2:51 PM