The Register: Microsoft Restores Java to XP. Here's the anatomy of Microsoft's decision-making.
- In an effort to cut off Java's client-side air-supply, Microsoft removes their JVM from XP.
- Sun milks every drop of publicity out of this. Anyone who finds an applet they can't use is able to download Sun's JRE1.4 Java plugin, which supports all the latest APIs, and has nifty (but as yet unrealized) features like Java Web-Start
- With this, plus Netscape/Mozilla's out of the box support for the modern Java plugin, Applet technology starts looking like it might finally be able to escape the doldrums caused by the fact the major browsers never upgraded to Java2.
- Microsoft realises they made a mistake, and re-packages their ancient not-quite-JDK1.1 plugin, making it look like they've capitulated to Sun's whining, but actually restoring the old nightmare, and creating new inertia against modern Java applications.
