Sun Microsystems announced today an aggressive new tactic to try to ensure that its version of Java, and not variants such as that implemented by Microsoft in its Internet Explorer browser, is the one websurfers use.
At Internet World in New York, Sun said its new Activator browser add-on - available both as an ActiveX control and a plug-in - will run a check on which version of Java is being run by a browser and then offer the ability to update outdated or noncompliant versions with the company's most current version.
"[Activator] would be for a person using, say, Internet Explorer, if they found they are not achieving compatibility. All they would have to do is click on something and it would happen - or possibly if the webmaster knows how to configure it, it could even be automatic," said Miko Matsumura, evangelist for Sun's JavaSoft unit.
One imperative for taking this path, the company says, is to make sure that the Java applets surfers encounter run properly.
"When Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer encounters a JDK 1.1-technology-based applet, the applet may fail to execute or simply be ignored if the browser does not support the full Java platform feature set," Sun said in a press release. The statement also spoke of giving users "hassle-free upgrades for future releases of the Java platform."
Sun's move, while positioned as a user-friendly way to keep software up to date, is also a careful thrust at Microsoft. In October, Sun launched a legal jihad against the software superpower, alleging in a federal court suit that Microsoft had broken its Java licensing agreement by sending the latest version of Internet Explorer to market with a rendition of Java that is not fully compliant with Sun's latest version. At stake in the battle is Sun's ultimate control of one of its prize properties - a property that some see as having the potential to make it possible for software developers to write programs once and have them run on any platform. That possibility is viewed as a mortal threat to Microsoft.
Microsoft's take on Activator was decidedly sour.
"For webmasters [Activator is] a nightmare," said Charles Fitzgerald, group program manager at Microsoft, noting that they will have to write HTML tags for different versions of Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator on Web pages.
"The Sun [Java Virtual Machine] is a pretty big step backwards from a performance standpoint, and you also lose script integration and other important functionality, like security zones. My general take is that this is interesting headline fodder, but it's a major step backwards," said Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald also noted that Microsoft built a similar plug-in for Navigator last year, and found that webmasters were resistant to the idea - and that there was "no way to deliver the integration people expect," he said.
But Microsoft isn't the only big player on the market to have introduced noncompliant Java. Netscape has acknowledged that Navigator fails to fully support Java, but has promised that forthcoming versions will be compliant.
Sun's answer to the compatibility problem: Activator. The software, once installed, will run a check on which Java virtual machine - what's used to support and run Java programs - a browser employs. If it's not Sun's latest JVM, Activator will be able to prompt a download of Sun's current Java Runtime Environment. To help propagate Activator, Sun is suggesting that webmasters add a line of HTML code to Web pages to instruct the browser to check whether the tool is installed.
Activator is targeted to update Internet Explorer 3.02 or later, and Netscape Navigator 3.0 or later versions on Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 platforms.
"The software itself checks to see what's going on. It looks at your system and says 'OK, let's see what I can do with this. Which virtual machine do I need, and do I need to download a new VM?' And these decisions are made on the fly, and ultimately you end up with a compatible system," said JavaSoft's Matsumura.
