October 9, 1997
As you have probably heard, Microsoft was notified October 7, 1997 that Sun Microsystems, Inc. is pursuing legal action regarding a contract dispute between our two companies. It is disappointing this dispute could not be resolved without Sun filing a lawsuit. We are in compliance with the contract, and we fully expect the court to agree. The following information is designed to provide background on this situation and to answer some of the most frequently asked questions.
Why are Sun and Microsoft in a legal dispute?
The dispute centers on certain terms and conditions of a contract relating to Java compatibility and the use of the Java marketing logo. Microsoft is well within the terms of its agreement with Sun, and will vigorously oppose Sun's lawsuit.
Does the lawsuit prevent Microsoft from shipping Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0?
No. Microsoft will continue to provide its products, including the recently released Internet Explorer 4.0 Web Browser. In fact, over 2 million copies of Internet Explorer 4.0 have already been downloaded from the microsoft.com Web site and hundreds of thousands more from partner Web sites like CNET.
How does Internet Explorer 4.0 Stack up against Netscape Communicator 4.0?
Internet Explorer 4.0 has swept every technical review in head to head competition with Netscape Navigator. Here are URLs for some of these reviews:
Techweb -- Head To Head: Internet Explorer 4.0 vs. Netscape Communicator 4.0
PC Magazine -- Editors' Choice: Internet Explorer 4.0
Wall Street Journal (requires paid subscription) -- Microsoft Programs for Web, E-Mail Outscore Netscape's
PC Week -- IE 4.0 beats Communicator to browsing punch
Is Internet Explorer 4.0 Java support flawed in some way?
No. Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 is the most compatible, fastest, most functional browser for running Java applications. Ironically one of the reasons that Internet Explorer has been so favorably received is because its Java support is so superior to that of Netscape Communicator. Here's what the reviewers say about Microsoft's Java support:
"We tested using Pendragon Software's CaffeineMark 3.0, a popular Java benchmark, to test the speed of both Netscape and Microsoft. Internet Explorer 4.0 handily beat Communicator 4.0 on the test, by about 25 percent."
CNet
"Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 is much faster than Netscape Navigator 4. IE4's superior memory allocator and garbage collector serve well in most of our tests, as they would in real applications. In many tests, IE4's score was several times Communicator's. IE4 bested Communicator by more than 500 percent in our Hash Tables test, a memory-allocation and data-structure-manipulation exercise."
PC Magazine
"...all the JDK 1.1 applets we tested with the release candidate worked. On the other hand, in our tests of Communicator, it failed to run several JDK 1.1 applets."
PC Week
How does Microsoft's compatibility rate when compared with others like Sun and NSCP?
Microsoft has delivered the most compatible implementation of Java in the marketplace. Despite the much-hyped "write once, run anywhere" claim by Sun, Sun's own virtual machine is less compatible than Microsoft's. Microsoft's Internet Explorer offers more Java compatibility than any browser on the market, including Netscape Navigator.
Does Microsoft trick developers into using "secret interfaces"?
No. Microsoft provides Windows features to Java developers, and makes it easy for developers to take advantage of those features. Developers who use these capabilities do so knowingly.
How does this lawsuit affect Sun's proposal to be certified as a standards body for Java by the International Standards Organization (ISO)?
The ISO has thus far rejected Sun's attempts to establish a proprietary standard for Java. Sun's attempt to deter developers from taking advantage of the best implementation of Java creates overwhelming doubt as to Sun's ability to serve as a neutral standards body for the evolution of Java. Sun needs to decide whether Java will be a true open technology, in which case Sun cannot retain control, or whether it will simply retain Java as a proprietary technology. Either path is acceptable, but the industry needs to understand which evolutionary path Sun intends to pursue.
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