Of the 100-plus vendors supporting JavaSoft's "100% Pure Java" testing and certification program, Microsoft is conspicuously absent
Boston (December 12, 1996) – Microsoft Corp. claims Sun Microsystems Inc. did not invite it to join the 100% Pure Java campaign, but Sun officials claim that’s not true.
The testing and certification campaign, launched by Sun’s JavaSoft Division at Internet World here today, aims to assure customers that applications written in Java will run on all platforms that meet the Java virtual machine specifications.
The announcement garnered support from more than 100 vendors, including IBM, Apple Computer Inc., Oracle Corp., and Netscape Communications Corp. Microsoft was noticeably absent from the podium.
JavaSoft’s president, Alan Baratz, said he called and asked Microsoft to participate and was told that the company would think about it. A Microsoft official disagreed, however.
“We weren’t invited,” said Charles Fitzgerald, program manager in Microsoft’s Internet client at collaboration division. “The press release was in the can before we had any discussion.”
Microsoft first learned of the Pure Java initiative from an email yesterday to Java licensees informing them that the announcement would be made today, Fitzgerald said. His understanding, from listening to Sun Fellow and Java creator James Gosling speak earlier in the day, is that the testing methods have not been spelled out yet.
“There’s not a lot of meat to it yet,” Fitzgerald said. “When we see something substantative, we’ll certainly take a look at it.”
Baratz could not be reached for comment, but Sun officials maintained that Microsoft was invited before the announcement, and that the tests are farther along.
Sun has been developing the certification program for a couple of months, but decided on short notice to launch it here at the show with its partners, said David Spenhoff, director of product marketing at JavaSoft. It decided to launch it here to quell developer and customer fears, spelled out in recent press reports, that the Java platform is fragmenting.
