Did you know that Microsoft plans to enact 2 silent changes with the release of the upcoming Windows XP? First it plans to EXCLUDE a Virtual Machine for use with Java technology! Second, Microsoft has set security restrictions from "Medium" to "High" for when future Java applets or applications are used (users will have to later get and install a 5MB download in order to enable Java AFTER installing/activating Windows XP) You can find out more about this issue on the famous ANFY Team webpage, home of some very talented Java programmers: http://www.anfyteam.com/ms_protest.html And below, is a letter I received from Microsoft, replying to an email I earlier sent into their Wish department - their suggestion line for future products. It's regarding their seemingly foregone conclusion to withdraw Java support from Windows XP on roll-out .. read on, Microsoft's response to me is above, and my original letter submitted to them is quoted below that ... ;-) --PX ---- Hello Ryan, Thank you for contacting Microsoft Wish. We appreciate that you have taken the time to send us your suggestions regarding Windows XP. Each e-mail suggestion sent to us is read by a member of the Wish team, classified for easy access, and routed to the product or service team to drive Microsoft product and/or service improvements. Because we receive an abundance of e-mail (over 70,000 e-mails a year!) we cannot guarantee that each request makes it into a final product or service, but each is considered. We can tell you that your e-mail has been received and is being reviewed by the team that is most capable of addressing it. Thank you for your suggestion! Carolyn Microsoft Wish Original Message Follows: ------------------------- Keep Java enabled upon Windows XP installation. If this obviously important issue doesn't still at-least equally sustain with the ominous yet questionable level of importance which .NET web applications will portend, then Home and Business users' Internet-browsing experiences will be relegated back to the dark ages of the Internet-era, the days of yore with CGI server-side-only interactivity. It would be horribly deplorable of Microsoft's shareholders to permit this glaring liability and lack of foresight, as well as irresponsible and misguided of their Executives, to exclude initial support for Java technology in their Windows XP roll-out. It would even be embarassingly suggestive and revealingly lackluster of Microsoft's internal oversight to exclude such a tremendous boon to the Development community worldwide by omitting complete Java support from even so-called "activation" of a Windows XP installation. And further, let it be said that in previous releases of their Windows OS product, never was even a full-fledged Sun-purebred JRE EVER included, anyways! To rally-on within such egotistical fervor hailing anthem after brocade, proclaiming new "innovation" in the computing world with yet more proprietary house-of-cards coding infrastructure, and yet with clear guile in withdrawing initial support for the set-standard of Sun JAVA technology (especially since several key MSN web-application internet sites CURRENTLY USE SUN JAVA technology), surprisingly reveals a rather self-betraying attitude, and yet opposingly, smacks of not just ignorance but industry sabotage! Many businesses utterly built on Microsoft Operating Systems and competing platforms completely inter-operate within their corporate demesne by relying upon Sun JAVA Technology and corresponding applications (whether through a native Sun JRE or a Microsoft-"fitted" Virtual Machine), in order to conduct ordinary business as well as perform crucial daily transactions. While not intended for "Mission Critical" status, Sun JAVA Technology support is utterly crucial to the ongoing success of Microsoft, as well as the initial testing phases of .NET web-transport application services, as many Java programmers will be not only re-writing their code, but transposing applications into the new stream-consciousness required of .NET C-Sharp and IL. Currently, MS .NET technology is seemingly nowhere even near ready-status for deployment on any industry-spec machine or appliance, let alone any such relevant consumer-wide PC's and appliances. To haphazardly omit support for Java with deliberate guile upon a user's initial installation of Windows XP reflects serious intellectual neglect (or blatant denial as the case may be), on the behalf of Microsoft and it's engineering progenitors. Shockingly this would speak of Microsoft''s Tactical Management teams as being so egotistically blind while clinging to their hopes of .NET that hardly a cross-firing word of other competitive cross-platform coding could be seen flying past their collective up-turned noses as to be "on the level" with where Microsoft hopes to go, yet where more-than-capable Java programmers have "already gone". And to say more regarding security threats of Java code, I've not heard of anything more than 1 singular threat, with the advent of the "Strange Brew" "Java virus" peeping over the horizon, Microsoft seems to now strangely act as if they are now totally security conscious, and in a hasty move to act stronger than I feel they really are, they would totally deny Java support and yet raise the Internet Explorer settings to "high" rather than only nominal "Mid"-level security? Why not be only more sensible then, and altogether ditch Windows-9x Consumer-level support from their company altogether whenever a random arbitrary Win32 native-code virus blasts from the hemisphere of the 'Net? Why not just disable support for every 3rd-party executable, and license all programming to be done under the firm iron-fisted auspices of Microsoft supervision without even requiring digitally signed code? Why wouldn't any other Operating System vendor deny any and all aspiring programmers the right to write anything for Windows, or their own platform for that matter, when a foreseen code "threat" amplifies their already heightened fears of slipping off the foothold of attaining yet another monopolostic stronghold in the programming community? No respectable or right- thinking programming firm would ever endeavour to undertake such a ridiculous thing. And neither do I feel that Microsoft, with what little respect it has left, should do either. Simply put, these actions are pure Microsoft F.U.D. [Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt] and are a heinous shame if not corrected immediately. Sincerely, --Ryan aka ProphetPX prophet777@hotmail.com

Wasn't there some kind of legal ramifications over the Virtual Machine - that MS could not include it becuase of settlements with Sun?

Chad is correct. Microsoft lost a lawsuit with Sun Microsystems. Sun sued because they control the Java standard, and Microsoft was changing it to "run better", without consulting Sun. Also, Microsoft was told to pay royalties, and/or cease development on it's version of Java, J++. Microsoft could pay royalties, but Sun is a bitter rival. You can download a free Java installation from Sun. How it works in combination with Windows Idon't know. These two companies are beyond hostile, but Sun wants Java to spread. Why don't *you* try it?

Regarding Ryan's post: I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft didn't respond; you rambled on for an eternity! WeaponX