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Earlier today a judge in San Jose issued an injunction forcing Microsoft to either stop shipping Java Runtime with Windows and Internet Explorer, or to ship a Java Runtime that is compatible with the Java Runtime that Sun ships.
The judge also ordered Microsoft to stop selling development tools for Java unless they are modified to be compatible with the Java that Sun ships.
The San Jose Mercury-News has the full story:
http://www.sjmercury.com/breaking/headline1/006869.htm
This may give Sun a lot of power. They will control a large number of bits on the Microsoft OS distribution, unless Microsoft decides to back off Java, and let Java find its own way onto Windows users' hard disks.
I asked Bill Gates about this in a phone conversation late last year. "Why not just omit Java?" I asked. He said they needed Java to be competitive in the browser space.
No doubt there are some interesting discussions going on in Redmond tonight!
***In the meantime
The ruling comes, coincidentally, on the day we discovered that Apple's Java Runtime for the Mac has extensive, very interesting, hooks into the script runtime environment on the Mac OS.
http://stories.userland.com/ticketReader$18
What a trip. As Microsoft is forced to back off their Windows-specific additions to Java, Apple is quietly shipping a Java that bonds at a very intimate level with the Mac OS.
It's funny! And fun...
***Apple and XML
One final question.
Mac and publishing. Big business, right?
XML and publishing. A perfect match, right?
So why is there no system-level XML parser for the Mac?
http://stories.userland.com/ticketReader$17
Apple, would you like some help here? We know some excellent Mac developers who know XML and work for reasonable money.
Let's get this going!
Dave Winer (Who is proud to be both a Windows and Mac developer.)