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MSFT trial turns to Java
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December 1, 1998: 7:49 p.m. ET
Sun's James Gosling set to testify on Microsoft's plans to 'pollute' Java
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - The landmark antitrust trial against Microsoft Corp. promises to heat up Wednesday when the government calls James Gosling, Sun Microsystems Inc. vice president, as its next witness.
Gosling, the creator of Sun's Java programming language, testified that Microsoft used its monopoly power to eliminate Java as threat to its operating-system dominance. The government released Gosling's written direct testimony late Tuesday afternoon and will use it to illustrate a wide pattern of anticompetitive behavior by Microsoft.
Microsoft will begin cross-examining Gosling Wednesday.
Sun has long been one of Microsoft's most fierce and vocal critics, and Gosling's testimony will take on greater significance in light of a Sun victory over Microsoft earlier this month in federal court.
In that ruling, a U.S. District Court judge granted Sun a preliminary injunction that forces Microsoft to make the Java that runs on its Windows 98 and Internet Explorer 4.0 compatible with Sun's standards or pull them from the market. Microsoft said it has begun complying with the order.
The judge also said Sun is likely to prevail on the merits of its lawsuit. Sun sued Microsoft in October 1997 for breaching its contractual obligation to deliver Java-compatible products. At the time, Sun said it was seeking damages of $35 million.
Because Java allows software developers to write applications that can run on a variety of operating systems, it is widely viewed as a threat to Microsoft's Windows dominance.
Software programs written for Java achieve their operating system independence through a "Java virtual machine," or JVM, which translates applications for the particular operating system and hardware on which it is running.
Microsoft developed its own JVM, called Microsoft Virtual Machine for Java, with Internet Explorer 4.0. Gosling said programs written for Microsoft's JVM are unable to run on non-Microsoft platforms.
He also testified that after Microsoft perceived the potential threat Java posed, the company used its "ubiquitous operating system to flood the market with its Microsoft-dependent implementation."
"I am aware of no PC manufacturer that is presently shipping a second, compatible JVM on their Windows systems," Gosling said.
Microsoft says Sun is to blame
In a statement, Microsoft contended that it has "developed and distributed the best and most compatible Java implementation in the marketplace."
The company also said it has always given software developers the option to build "cross-platform 100-percent Java applications following the model Sun advocates, as well as to build first-rate Windows applications that exploit native Widows code."
Furthermore, Microsoft said given the fact that Sun claims more than 150 million Java licensees, the company can't claim Microsoft's actions has inhibited Java's success.
"Sun set unreasonable marketplace expectations and failed to deliver on its promises," Microsoft said.
But Gosling said Microsoft officials themselves understood the implications of modifying Java for its own purposes, citing a February 1997 meeting as evidence.
"All of us who attended the meeting -- including Microsoft -- unanimously agreed that unilaterally extending the Java programming language would hurt compatibility among Java tools and programs, would injure other tools vendors, and would damage customers' ability to run a Java-based software product on whatever platform they wished," Gosling testified.
"One of the Microsoft representatives in attendance admitted that unilateral language extensions would be detrimental and said that Microsoft 'wouldn't be cowboys' by unilaterally introducing such extensions in their implementation of Java."
As it has done previously, the government will show excerpts of Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates' videotaped testimony as a prelude to Gosling's testimony.
Microsoft saw Netscape threat
During the trial Tuesday, the government introduced evidence to illustrate Microsoft executives perceived another threat to its Windows operating system, this one in the form of Netscape Communications Corp.'s Navigator Web browser.
The government released the pre-trial testimony by Jim Allchin, Microsoft senior vice president, to show why it believes Microsoft went to extraordinary lengths to knock Netscape (NSCP) from its position as the top supplier of software to browse the Internet.
"As far as I'm concerned, they were a complete competitor to the operating system," Allchin said in testimony given in March.
Allchin said Microsoft at first considered Navigator an ordinary computer program, but it was transformed to a potential operating system "in the blink of an eye."
Allchin explained that if computer programs could be made to run on Navigator, no one would notice the underlying operating system.
The Justice Department and 20 states sued Microsoft in May, accusing the company of abusing its dominant share in the computer operating systems market to take over the Internet browser market from Netscape.
Economist: Microsoft keeps prices high
Earlier in court, government witness Frederick Warren-Boulton said Microsoft wanted to preserve its monopoly power in the operating system because it had been able to dramatically increase its prices.
Warren-Boulton, a Washington-based economist, cited documents showing that since 1991 Microsoft had increased its prices as much as 20-fold when measured as a proportion of the price of a personal computer.
Warren-Boulton said that in 1991 Microsoft charged prices that equaled only 0.5 percent of the cost of a personal computer system. By 1996, however, that share had increased fivefold to 2.5 percent and continued to grow.
Warren-Boulton cited a Dec. 16, 1997, memo by Microsoft executive Joachim Kempin to Gates that said if there were $500 personal computers by Christmas of 1998, "our royalties … could be as high as 10 percent of total system prices."
Microsoft contends it has kept the price of Windows stable while consistently adding new features.
The government is relying on Warren-Boulton's testimony to establish that Microsoft fits an economic definition of a monopoly. In order for Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson to find Microsoft guilty of anticompetitive practices, he must first determine whether the company is a monopoly.
Microsoft (MSFT) shares closed at 129-1/2, up 7-1/2, while Sun (SUNW) shares rose 5-7/8 to 79-15/16. 
-- from staff and wire reports
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