It's official: the Sun-Microsoft lawsuit has finally been settled. Of course, lots of you are now asking, "What Sun-Microsoft lawsuit?" That's not terribly surprising; lawsuits usually take so long to resolve that we barely remember this one ourselves, especially given our failure-prone memories and our appallingly short attention spans. Luckily, we've got a well-stocked Reruns library to refresh the dimmer bits of our broadcasting history, which means that we can re-experience the earlier stages of the case as if they're happening right this very minute. Let's hear it for technology!

The lawsuit in question was originally filed waaaaay back in October of 1997 (Over three years ago? Good lord, no wonder our recollection of this case is fuzzy-- we can hardly remember what we had for dinner last night) when Sun alleged that Microsoft had tainted its version of the Java programming language with proprietary extensions, while also leaving out certain required features in a baldfaced attempt to poison the language's platform-independent "write once, run anywhere" goal. The motive for this alleged behavior is obvious: Microsoft wants developers writing Windows software, not "run-anywhere" software. Sun won some early battles in the war; in November of 1998, Microsoft received an injunction ordering it to "fix" Java by making it comply with Sun's standards again. Then Microsoft appealed the injunction, and in August of 1999 won the appeal. It was at that point, roughly two years into the case, that we just plumb lost interest. We figured we'd check back in another year or so when something actually happened.

Well, it actually took a year and a half, but according to a Computer Reseller News article, the case has finally been settled, and the terms are interesting, to say the least. First of all, Microsoft is forking over $20 million for messing with Java-- but that's not the interesting bit, since $20 million is probably less than the Redmond Giant spends on ketchup packets in the company cafeteria every month. (They spring for Heinz, you know; only the best for Redmond's brightest!) The part that has us going "hmmmmm" is this: "The settlement also terminates all of Microsoft's Java licenses and prevents Microsoft from using the Java trademark in any new products." Maybe we're interpreting this the wrong way, but it sounds to us like Microsoft may well be ditching Java altogether. If future Microsoft operating systems ship sans Java then the language's promise may well turn into "write once, run anywhere (except for 90% of all desktop computers)."

Apparently Microsoft is going to throw all its weight behind its own alternative C# language, instead, which "one analyst called Microsoft's 'Java killer.'" Given how many programmers develop their software using Microsoft's tools and for Microsoft's platforms, we can't help but wonder what this will mean for Java's future. And with Mac OS X striving to be the best Java platform available, anything that threatens Java's future represents a challenge for Apple. Then again, since Mac OS X will obviously alter the market share mix so drastically over the course of the next couple of years, as soon as Apple has 60% of the installed base, it won't matter anymore anyway. Right? Right?