The proposition that the settlement between Microsoft and Sun means they're picking out curtains is cute, but baseless. When seen as a business and political decision, $2B was a worthwhile investment for Microsoft. Here's my conjecture on the matter: The case was dragging on too long. Microsoft had the money to tie this case up indefinitely, to be sure. But what for? Fending off Sun on Microsoft's general princ The proposition that the settlement between Microsoft and Sun means they’re picking out curtains is cute, but baseless. When seen as a business and political decision, $2B was a worthwhile investment for Microsoft. Here’s my conjecture on the matter: The case was dragging on too long. Microsoft had the money to tie this case up indefinitely, to be sure. But what for? Fending off Sun on Microsoft’s general principles–the unfettered right to compete and the right to choose what it puts into Windows–wasn’t worth the effort. The bones that Microsoft has thrown, in the form of pro-competitor changes to Windows, have quieted things down. That’s good enough. Let Netscape, I mean Sun, I mean Mozilla wear the targets. Why should a vendor spend millions to fortify its free software? Let lazy-ass users get infected by Mozilla and Sun software for a change. I know, malware monkeys are really gold-hearted soldiers in the war against monopolies. After they win by knocking out IE and OE, they’ll trade their black hats for virginal white and return to their basements to write multi-player Tetris clones. Save it. The little dears want bragging rights and will take them at anyone’s expense. Users will turn the same deaf ears to Mozilla, Java and Solaris patches as they do IE, OE and Windows fixes today. If Microsoft beat Sun in court, public outrage would motivate everyone from hackers to judges to bring Microsoft down a peg. Regional politicians and visible corporations would resume noisily kicking Windows out of their operations, to net some free press coverage and to pander to younger voters and buyers. The J2EE vs. .Net tug of war must go on, else Microsoft becomes a true monopoly by default. And probably the best motivation of all: Microsoft could not risk having IBM, possibly with some consortium of J2EE licensees, snap up enterprise Java. If IBM and BEA combined their Java intellectual property with assets acquired from Sun, they could build a brick wall between .Net and its intended audience. Microsoft is betting that $2B will keep Java in Sun’s hands, at least until the new .Net/Whidbey/Longhorn push gains momentum. From Microsoft’s viewpoint, Sun is the safest place for Java to be. ——– Technology Industry