Sun hits out at Microsoft upgrade ploy

Sun Microsystems' top software executive has criticised Microsoft's decision to drop older software products that rely on Java software and offered a steep discount on Sun's own desktop software.

In an open letter to customers, Sun executive vice president Jonathan Schwartz said Microsoft's decision to stop distributing older products such as Windows 98 is a deliberate attempt to coerce customers to upgrade to newer software.

"It's a lesson in how a company with legendary market dominance can lose sight of customer priorities and force an unnecessary transition on to a customer base already paralysed with viruses and security breaches," Schwartz said in the letter, published late last week.

Schwartz took the opportunity to pitch Sun's own desktop software, which uses Java and runs on Linux, to current Microsoft customers. "Sun Microsystems will agree to match any offer Microsoft puts on the table for desktop software - at 50 per cent of Microsoft's quoted offer," Schwartz said in a statement.

In his letter, Schwartz took issue with Microsoft's claim that Sun "forced its hand" to stop distributing older products.

In a posting to a Microsoft download site, Microsoft said several products would be phased out because of a settlement reached with Sun in January 2001 regarding distribution of Windows products that use the Java virtual machine, software needed to run programs written with Sun's Java language.

The discontinued products include several popular packages, including Windows 98, Outlook 2000 and SQL Server 7.

Microsoft's distribution of its own Java software is the subject of a long-standing suit against Microsoft, in which Sun succeeded in restricting Microsoft from distributing its own Java virtual machine for Windows. In 2001, the companies reached an agreement, in which Microsoft would stop shipping products that included a Microsoft-written Java virtual machine by January 2004. In October, that deadline was extended to September of next year.

Schwartz claimed that Microsoft did not need to pull the plug on its Java-dependent products so soon.

"The agreement between Sun and Microsoft gives customers a graceful transition path to a future platform," Schwartz said. "Moreover, Sun has offered, and will continue to offer, a licence to Java technology that would spare Microsoft any transition whatsoever, so long as Microsoft maintains compatibility."

For its part, Microsoft said it will stop distributing older products but not drop support altogether. For Windows 98, for example, Microsoft will stop extended support in mid-January and offer only web-based self-help after that. Other companies are expected offer support for older Microsoft products as well.

On the question of security fixes for discontinued software, Microsoft said it "will evaluate malicious threats to our customers' systems on a case-by-case basis and take appropriate steps."

The company is also updating the Java virtual machine for some of its products, including Windows NT 4.0, which will allow them to be available for download until next September.

Martin LaMonica writes for News.com