Sun's VP and chief technical officer, John Fowler, recently discussed the significant agreement reached between Sun and Microsoft that ended the ongoing litigation between those two companies. The interview specifically focused on the impact the agreement has on Sun's Software business, as well as the JavaTM platform, other standards efforts and open source.

Fowler said, "The two companies will be establishing executive level contacts and program directors to manage the relationship in the next couple of weeks. We will then be proposing some efforts to go explore in the area of interoperability."

At the very least, Fowler explained, the agreement means the litigation between Sun and Microsoft is over. But more significantly, the agreement should serve to broaden interoperability and choice for Sun's customers. Going forward, Fowler envisions a competitive, but healthy, relationship between .NET and Java technology.

"We pursued a long-term agreement so that we can make the kind of commitment customers want and expect in the products they depend on." He said, "The agreement is so new it is impossible to give product specifics at this time, beyond the products we already have today. Also, it is important to remember that this is a two-way agreement, and Microsoft will be making their own decisions about their products.

Fowler said that Microsoft is, as always, welcome to join the Java Community ProcessSM (JCPSM) and, "participate in standards setting collaboration to benefit customers and contribute to innovation." Sun has no plans to alter its current policies and strategies when it comes to standards. However, he mentioned that there would be increased opportunities for Sun and Microsoft to work together on standards.

In regards to open source, Fowler assured the interviewer that Sun would remain committed to open source initiatives, "...outside of the University of California at Berkeley, Sun is the largest contributor of open-source code on the planet and we will continue to contribute to the community. Sun is as committed as ever to the Open Source community and we have hundreds of engineers working on projects from Apache and MozillaTM to (Project) JXTA and Open Office."

For the complete interview, see:

http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/media/features/fowler_qa.html [...read more...]

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