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Sun Plug-in Gives Microsoft Browser Java Compliance

Microsoft quick to denounce Java Activator as a technically flawed PR move.

By Brian McWilliams, PCWorld   

Rather than wait for the courts or the marketplace to force Microsoft to comply with Sun%squots JDK version 1.1, Sun says Internet Explorer users can simply install Java Activator and never worry again about whether Java applets will run correctly.

According to Frank Rimalovski, product manager for Java Activator, the technology is mostly aimed at corporations that want to deploy Java on their intranets. He says it doesn%squott replace the Java Virtual Machine that Microsoft builds into IE, but simply enables Web designers to specify that their applets run on Sun%squots JVM within Activator instead.

%dquotThis allows ... an enterprise Web master, a Web-page author, an IS manager--whoever is the responsible individual for the content of the intranet--to make a decision at runtime for the user to download or point to Sun%squots Java runtime environment,%dquot Rimalovski says.

Rimalovski adds that Web designers would have to write some HTML to check whether Activator is installed on the user%squots machine and, if not, offer to download and install the 2.8MB plug-in.

Besides supporting Internet Explorer version 3.02 or later, Sun says Activator can also bring full JDK 1.1 support to Netscape Navigator 3.0 or later versions on Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0.

Microsoft was quick today to dismiss Sun%squots announcement as a PR stunt. Group product manager Charles Fitzgerald said Java Activator poses numerous headaches for users, developers, and Web masters.

%dquotIf you%squotre the end user, Sun%squots virtual machine is a pretty big step backwards from the Microsoft virtual machine,%dquot says Fitzgerald. %dquotWe offer a much faster implementation of Java, and performance is probably the biggest single concern [for Java users]. The other big issue is integration, [because] the virtual machine is not just a thing bolted on the side of a browser.%dquot

Fitzgerald said that because of the way Microsoft has integrated its Java virtual machine into Internet Explorer, using Activator would break some features, such as Internet Explorer%squots security zones. He also said it wouldn%squott allow the use of Java in Active Channel content.

Sun said today that its ultimate goal is for Microsoft and Netscape to provide native support for current, certified versions of Java. But in the meantime, Activator relieves corporations of the frustration of waiting for browser makers to keep up.

Microsoft%squots Fitzgerald, however, says he doubts enterprises will rush to Activator with open arms.

%dquotAre corporate accounts really going to want something that doesn%squott know how IE works?%dquot Fitzgerald asks? %dquotIt%squots kind of a band aid, a hack. Are corporate accounts going to race out and say %squotwe want a slower, less functional Java experience%squot? I doubt it.%dquot

Sun may not win any new Java devotees as a result of Activator. But Zona Research analyst Ron Rappaport believes developers who share Sun%squots vision will support the new technology.

As Rappaport puts it, %dquotThat notion of cross-platform that%squots sitting out in front of the industry%squots eyes, on a platter next to the Java ham, you know they want to eat that up. ... They%squotll take advantage of Java Activator to ensure that they%squotre complying with Sun%squots strategy for Java.%dquot

A demo of Java Activator is available from Sun%squots Web site. Sun says it will release the final version of Activator by the end of the first quarter of 1998.