Microsoft ordered to carry Java. A U.S. district court judge orders the software giant to include Sun's version of Java with the Windows operating system. [CNET News.com]
I can't see this decision helping Java. It has not been decided yet which products will have to carry Java, but even if every copy of sold next year contains it that still leaves millions of existing copies that don't. This ruling will still have the survive the actual trial and all appeals before developers can depend on having a copy of Java in Windows. Even if every copy of Windows does have Java, so what? It is not the lack of a JRE that has kept Java from becoming popular on the client. There is no chance of that until Swing apps routinely run as well as native ones. I have to larely agree with Alan Williamson that the ruling sets a terrible precedent and does not really solve anything. It seems more like a way for McNealy to publicly embarass MS and any benefits to Java are secondary. Couldn't Sun have gone to Dell, HP, and Gateway and given them the JRE to bundle on every new computer. That could have had almost the same effect without resorting to the government to solve Sun's problems.
5:48:22 PM 
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