Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft Product Manager: “Screw Sun, cross-platform will never work. Let's move on and steal the Java language.”

Summary: Microsoft speaks about "killing Sun's Java."

WE ARE STARTING to cover Java territories from the Comes vs Microsoft case, which Microsoft paid to settle, apparently with the condition that all this evidence will disappear. Today we offer the text version of Exhibit px_2768 (1997) [PDF], which shows Microsoft's treatment of cross-platform, Java, and competition in general. The full exhibit can be seen at the bottom (or the original PDF), but to give some pointers and highlights, see the following message from Prashant Sridharan, Microsoft's Visual J++ Product Manager:



If we, as a company, are interested in promoting Windows, why bother with AFC? In my own opinion (apart from Ironwood, J/Direct, or any of the other politically-charged topics now), we are horribly inconsistent in this regard.

Screw Sun, cross-platform will never work. Let's move on and steal the Java language.

That said, have we ever taken a look at how long it would take Microsoft to build a cross-platform Java that did work? Naturally, we would never do it, but it would give us some idea of how much time we have to work with in killing Sun's Java.


For readers' convenience, the context too is displayed in the full exhibit. This fits our analysis that Microsoft et al (and now Novell [1, 2, 3]) are essentially fighting against Java with their .NET infatuation (or Visual J++ prior to that). This is done unethically in Microsoft's case. It it also important to remind people how Microsoft really feels about Java now that Microsoft is invading Java conferences, pretending nothing negative was ever intended by Microsoft.




Appendix: Comes vs. Microsoft - exhibit px_2768, as text








PLAINTIFF'S EXHIBIT 2768 Comes v. Microsoft

From: Russ Arun Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 1997 6:13 PM To: Prashant Sridharan Subject: RE: More Questions about ADO in java...

Cross platform is a red herring that is not worth spending time on. Based all the numbers we see it is interestingly more irrelevant now than it was 5 years ago when I joined MS.

However we need to coopt the best lessons from Java into Windows.

-------- From: Prashant Sridharan Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 1997 6:07 PM To: Russ Arun Subhect: RE: More Questions about ADO in java...

If we, as a company, are interested in promoting Windows, why bother with AFC? In my own opinion (apart from Ironwood, J/Direct, or any of the other politically-charged topics now), we are horribly inconsistent in this regard.

Screw Sun, cross-platform will never work. Let's move on and steal the Java language.

That said, have we ever taken a look at how long it would take Microsoft to build a cross-platform Java that did work? Naturally, we would never do it, but it would give us some idea of how much time we have to work with in killing Sun's Java.

Prashant Sridharan Visual J++ Product Manager preshant@microsoft.com (425) 703-4682 http://www.mediacity.com/-heath

-----Original Message-----

From: Russ Arun Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 1997 5:29 PM To: Preshant Sridharan Subhect: RE: More Questions about ADO in java...

It is in Sun's interest to be cross platform. NT is eating share fast. So they are scrambling to find something and Java is their best hope. But for Java they would be in trouble.

-------- From: Preshant Sridharan Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 1997 5:25 PM To: Russ Arun Subject: RE: More Questions about ADO in java...

Agreed on x-plat. Screw Sun.

Of course, you and I probably have some old Sun buddies that would think otherwise :-)

Prashant Sridharan Visual J++ Product Manager preshant@microsoft.com (425) 703-4682 http://www.mediacity.com/-heath

MSS 0097798 CONFIDENTIAL

ATTORNEYS ONLY




-----Original Message----- From: Russ Arun Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 1997 5:23 PM To: Prashant Sridharan Subhect: RE: More Questions about ADO in java...

Don't care about cross platform in future - pretense or otherwise. AFC is the closest to this at this point.

Yes - we are shipping the Microsoft JDBC-ODBC bridge that came from Intersolv and supports JDBC.

-------- From: Prashant Sridharan Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 1997 5:12 PM To: Russ Arun Subject: RE: More Questions about ADO in java...

Russ,

I am now joining in this thread, so forgive the silly question. Are we not shipping JDBC at all with the SDK 2.0?

Do we have any pretense of cross-platform left? ;-)

Prashant Sridharan Visual J++ Product Manager preshant@microsoft.com (425) 703-4682 http://www.mediacity.com/-heath

-----Original Message----- From: Russ Arun Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 1997 5:09 PM To: Java Discussion Alias: Craig Longman (Excell Data Corporation) Subject: RE: More Questions about ADO in java...

In theory having both JDBC (the deprecated one) and MSJDBC (the Microsoft JDBC-ODBC bridge) is OK, but you will have spurious classes that I would worry about you relying on.

JDBC can be rid off by deleting JDBC.zip and any other muck should clear itself as part of the VM install.

-------- From: Craig Longman (Excell Data Corporation) Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 1997 4:59 PM To: Java Discussion Alias Subject: RE: More Questions about ADO in java...

>in the words of 'Russ Arun' >* JDBC.zip is not being shipped - so you relying on it is not good

Ahh. I just looked over the docs again, and I must admit I failed to notice the 'ms' in front of the jdbc.exe file to run. After running that, I get the Intersolv stuff installed just great, and everything is running fine.

Now if I can just figure out why multiple result sets in a single statement are not working correctly...

Does anyone know where I can report bugs on the jdbc-odbc bridge?

> - You might want to uninstall your VM and install the latest VM or IE

ATTORNEYS ONLY


of us to look forward to, no doubt.

>* There are examples in the SDK that might help you

Aside from the SimpleSelect.java that was changed to use MSs new naming conventions before they had the Intersolv which has the same naming conventions and can now use the standard sample, I couldn't find anything in the samples that helped in any way what-so-ever.

Cheers, and thanks for the help.

CraigL->Thx():

MSS 0097800 CONFIDENTIAL

ATTORNEYS ONLY



Credit: wallclimber

Recent Techrights' Posts

Legal Letters Are Not Postcards
It seems like intimidation, nothing more
 
IAM Magazine is in Effect Dead, It's Now Fused Into Microsoft's Patent Troll (Which It Has Promoted All Along)
Microsoft-connected patent trolls in Europe [...] Now, in his new job, Wild can use his 'expertise' to help guide blackmail/extortion to better harm Europe's industry
A Huge Proportion of 'Articles' in The Register MS Are Actually Paid Spam of the Communist Party of China, Selling Compromised (for Wiretapping) Technology
The Register MS is having a go at becoming a marketing company or "B2B"
Top Officials Have Just Left Microsoft, Layoffs in Anything But Name
Microsoft's debt is very fast-growing
Local Staff Committee The Hague (LSCTH) Meets "Alicante Mafia" at the European Patent Office (EPO)
Report on meeting with VP1 and his team on 21 April 2026
UbuntuPit (ubuntupit.com) Has Deleted Slop Pages, Its Slopfarm Experiment Has Failed (Like Always!)
Turning one's site into a slopfarm is a death knell
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, May 23, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, May 23, 2026
The "Next Big" Bonus for IBM's CEO Apparently Comes From American Taxpayers While Veteran IBMers Are PIP'd and RA'd (Laid Off)
the next big thing will be the CEO's bonus
Links 23/05/2026: Starbucks Scraps Disastrous Slopfest, Colbert’s Final ‘Late Show’
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/05/2026: Poetry, Hobbies, ROOPHLOCH, and More
Links for the day
Government Bailouts Won't be Enough to Save IBM
Bailouts from taxpayers in the US
Links 23/05/2026: Social Media Bans and Demise of Userbase of LLM Chatbots
Links for the day
SLAPP Censorship - Part 85 Out of 200: The United Kingdom's Rating for Press Freedom Has Improved, But We Can Do Even Better
we see the US at #64
Sites Realise That Becoming More Active by Using Bots (LLM Slop) is Self-Destructive
We'll soon (maybe next year) also show that some of the 85+ KG of legal papers sent our way are computer-generated garbage, which might run afoul of some rules
European Patent Office (EPO) Strikes Persist, EPO Management Tries to Give False Impression of "Happy Staff"
EPO is trying to broadcast to the world a totally phony image of itself
Gemini Links 23/05/2026: Patience, LLM Chatbts Being Bad, and Unexpected Computer Surgery
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, May 22, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, May 22, 2026
Links 22/05/2026: Ebola Crisis and Samsung Averts a Walkout With Big Bonuses
Links for the day
The End of FOSSPost (fosspost.org), It Has become an LLM Slopfarm Like FOSSLinux
These sites will never get lucky with slop. These experiments always end badly.
Links 22/05/2026: Inflation Fears and Thailand Tightens Visa Rules for Tourists From Dozens of Nations
Links for the day
EPO Staff Representation Speaks of This Week's Discussion With the EPO's Budget and Finance Committee (BFC) Amid Mass Strikes
The Central Staff Committee's outline (prepared in a rush) or the "flash report"
SLAPP Censorship - Part 84 Out of 200: New Legislation Against SLAPPs on the Way (After We Reached Out to Ministers)
They dealt with the matter individually too, but we won't share this in public, at least not at this time
The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part XXX - Where Was "The Ethics and Compliance Team" When the Family of EPO President Campinos Was Caught Doing Cocaine?
It remains to be seen if national delegates will tolerate this in future meetings
Gemini Links 22/05/2026: Esperanto Music History, Suspicious Adoption of Signal, and Unauthorised LLM Slop in Code
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, May 21, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, May 21, 2026