Sun may join Web services body. Ending months of speculation, the computing giant says it intends to join a key Web services standards organization--but with some strings attached. [CNET News.com]

Ah, this political stuff is so annoying.  This is kids-on-the-playground behavior.  Both IBM and MS have seen the business end of Sun lawyers in the past couple of years over Java.  So they're being childish about letting Sun play in their little Web Services organization.

But get this quote: "'I think those two would love to create a duopoly in the marketplace,' Sun Chief Executive Scott McNealy said in a press conference earlier this week, in reference to IBM, Microsoft and Web services."

What?  Microsoft has done more to open up their Web Services technology (C# and the CLR in particular) than Sun has ever done with the Java platform.  And IBM has been a huge supporter of Java, giving away tons of code.  The idea that IBM and Microsoft are trying to create a "duopoly" is patently ridiculous.

9:31:03 AM