Microsoft to talk .Net at JavaOne

For the first time since settling its long-standing legal dispute with Sun Microsystems, Microsoft will be a full-fledged participant in the JavaOne developer conference, which is being held in San Francisco next month.

Microsoft representatives will participate in a handful of technical sessions, and the Redmond, Washington, company is even shelling out for a 15-foot-by-15-foot booth at the annual Java event, according to Brian Keller, a product manager with Microsoft.

Microsoft and Sun are now more than a year into a collaboration agreement that, to date, has produced more rhetoric than tangible results. But by making a number of joint appearances at the show, Sun and Microsoft will give the Java development community a rare chance to ask both companies questions simultaneously. “With the agreement, we’ve been taking a more concerted approach to seeing how we can mend the fences,” Keller said.

Though last year’s JavaOne came three months after the two companies settled their differences, Microsoft did not have a formal presence at the 2004 JavaOne, Keller said. “It was probably too soon after the agreement,” he said.

At JavaOne 2005, however, the “mend the fences,” approach will be manifest. Microsoft plans to participate in six JavaOne sessions, including one entitled, “On the Couch with Sun and Microsoft.” This will represent the first time the two companies have discussed .Net and Java interoperability at the show, according to the JavaOne Web site.

Java developers expecting groundbreaking developments from Microsoft are likely to be disappointed, however. Keller said that his company had no major announcements planned for the show. “It’s really about getting in front of customers,” he said.

Though Microsoft has been a pariah to some of these customers for years, Keller said his company expected a hospitable reception. “I don’t think we’re going to be going down and packing bulletproof vests or anything like that,” he said.

In the past, Microsoft representatives have done just fine walking into similar “competitive environments,” including the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo, he said. “Once we start talking to customers, it turns out that they have concerns about (.Net and Java interoperability).”