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"The spat over Java invigorated Microsoft, which invested not only in C# and .NET, but also in XML, creating a viable alternative to Java in the enterprise."

Exactly. Sun not only lost the desktop but also a large share of the potential server market. Fighting Microsoft was the worst mistake Sun made since the inception of Java.

No, I don't think it was. If Sun had faught Microsoft then Java would have suffered as Microsoft took it over (and make no mistake they would have).

But maybe, C# and the .NET Runtime/CLR/CLI would never have happened? Just an "extended" version of Java? I think I'd have preferred that, but who knows what the outcome would have been.

As for calling Javascript, Java's little brother... Hmm. I think that's stretching the truth - it may have had the ability to talk to applets, but it was originally called LiveScript, and had the Java brand tacked on by marketing.

And a fact most people seem to ignore (including the author of the article) is that MS invented AJAX, just without the actual monicker. (I'd love to stand corrected on that, if anyone knows better).

I should also say that yes it would have been better had Sun and Microsoft worked "together" but it didn't happen and speculation is almost useless at this point.

I have heard the same thing about AJAX and Microsoft.

"Sun not only lost the desktop but also a large share of the potential server market. Fighting Microsoft was the worst mistake Sun made since the inception of Java."

Actually you are 100% percent wrong here. It was Microsoft's mistake. In th 80s' and 90's Microsoft dominated the developer world but now look at programming languages. (http://www.tiobe.com/tpci.htm) Java has been #1 for a long time. The major languages in the world these days are mostly non-Microsoft now.

Microsoft lost most of their mojo with developers ( hence Steve Balmer's monkey dance http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4860483760049380308 )

see http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/APIWar.html

Java has probably 3 times the developers than in .NET world despite the billions in marketing money Microsoft has spent.

Java never lost the desktop. Java never had the desktop.

Sun got 2 billion (yeah with a B) from Microsoft for the trademark infringement. Doesn't seem like much of a loss to Sun.

Strange because http://programming.reddit.com/info/62j9j/comments/ points out how lousy Java is.

Look at language changes in Microsoft's C# over the past 7 years:
2001 - .NET 1.0 released and C# 1.0 looks VERY much like Java, but has some features which definite make it more powerful and expressive: properties, delegates and events.
2005 - .NET 2.0 released and C# 2.0 introduces generics, anonymous delegates, and as a result, closures. Java is still TALKING about closures
2007 - .NET 3.5 released and C# 3.0 introduces LINQ and its building blocks of anonymous types, extension methods, lambda functions, object initializers, collection initializers. Java, hasn't changed since its language got its horrible type-erasure generics.

I prefer C# and I can't stand Java because of the above features. If Sun had played fair instead of seeing Microsoft as a target with dollar signs, Java might have grown in the direction of C#. Google has gotten away with bastardizing Java far more than MS ever has, see GWT and Android. Sun simply decided to be more proprietary and territorial over their intellectal property than they should have.

If MS had been allowed to E & E java, then the java world would have been FAR better off.
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