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It's not just Sun vs. Microsoft anymore -- as the success of little Transvirtual shows.------ BY PETER WAYNER | Most readers will know the Java programming language as Sun Microsystem's baby -- its biggest weapon against Microsoft's world domination. The media have been filled with stories of Sun and Microsoft battling over Java. First Sun sues Microsoft for trying to "pollute" the Java language with Microsoft-only features; then Microsoft counters with claims that it makes the best and most compatible version of Java. On the season's fight card, this press release and lawsuit extravaganza is second only to Microsoft's battle with the Justice Department. While most people may see two sumo-sized companies battling for superiority, the Java realm is evolving differently -- becoming a strange blend of small start-ups, jealous corporate partners and bigger monoliths bumping, jostling and pushing for control. While everyone cautiously agrees that Sun's rigid standardization is an important feature, there's plenty of griping about who pays whom for what, and many small companies are running in, looking to capture some of the crumbs. That may explain how the JavaWorld magazine award for the best Java virtual machine went not to Sun but to a small Berkeley, Calif., start-up named Transvirtual -- a company that does not even pay Sun's Java licensing fee. Transvirtual is a great example of a company trying to carve out a niche where it might win over some of Sun's business. The company makes a version of the virtual machine -- the translator that lets cross-platform Java software code run within a specific operating-system environment -- that requires a smaller amount of memory than Sun's. And since Transvirtual is pursuing an open-source strategy, desktop users can download a free copy from the Transvirtual site, along with all of the source code. The company isn't doing this out of pure generosity: It hopes to attract attention and bug fixes by releasing the version for desktop systems for free, and plans to make money by selling another version -- one that's tuned for appliances like cell phones or TV set-top boxes. "Our business is making Java for embedded devices like cell phones or Web phone," says Transvirtual CEO Tim Wilkinson, "for companies that want to put Java in some sort of a box that isn't a PC. The desktop version isn't right for them because it's too big." Miles Jones, head of marketing for Transvirtual, says that licensees of the commercial version of Transvirtual's Java machine are getting something for their money: "Our custom edition offers its own AWT graphics library [which provides user interface tools], is portable to literally any platform, offers a very small footprint [and] runs more than twice as fast as the desktop version." N E X T_ P A G E .|. Sun just wants to "encourage the Java language" |
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