Microsoft Sr. VP Eric Rudder blogs about the Sun settlement

Eric Rudder, Sr. VP at Microsoft and my boss's, boss's, boss is back blogging again.  If you want to see real-life corporate transparency in action at the exec level ... this is a start. Eric answers questions that he has received from customers regarding the Microsoft-Sun legal settlement.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/blogs/ericr/

"I know that going forward, improved cooperation will lead to improved interoperability for our mutual customers and platforms. We've just started to put in place some of the teams working on the technical details, and we hope to be as transparent as possible as we make progress with our plans."

I am really glad that there was a settlement. It sounds like both sides are happy. So I'll try not to sound like a complete troll when I say this, but why is he talking about "improved cooperation" and "mutual customers and platforms". He talks like a marketing robot. Look at how Rick Ross and Richard Stallman talk from their reactions:

"Make no mistake, I was never alone in that courtroom, you were right there with me the whole time."

and

"Roughly speaking, they are: the freedom to run the program, the freedom to study and change the source, the freedom to redistribute the source and binaries, and the freedom to publish improved versions."

You can tell they put their heart into what they write. And they've thoguht about it very much before putting it into words. I wish Eric would hop on here and maybe talk "down to our level" - if he can be bothered... maybe have his secretary forward a few paragraphs.

"Marketing robot" -- that's some tough feedback -- especially for a guy who spends time on each post!

I love empowering people with software.

I love building great software.

I love building tools that help others build great software.

That's why I am still at MS after so many years, and that's why I love hearing from the community on how we can deliver better tools.

-eric

http://news.com.com/1604-2-5184324-2.asx

Scott McNealy & Steve Ballmer holds press conference

Does this mean that MSVM will be able to run Java code like Sun VM does, or will it continue to only run Microsoft Java?

What about Rich Green's resignation? I'm sure this settlement will mainly benefit Sun and Microsoft more than competitors (and maybe only Sun in the short term - it needed the money)

Will we see Java.NET (as well as J#), or J# somehow being incorporated into Java (in a cross platform matter)?

Thanks for the feedback Eric. It's really cool to hear your gut feelings. Stuff like that helps me get into the mind of the people at Microsoft and believe more in its motives.

I'm really curious about Java compatibility with .NET - I wonder if the patent stuff Scott & Steve were talking about relates to IP holdings on their bytecode runtimes.

Perhaps more open source projects are in the works for Microsoft? 

Perhaps a port of Office Technology to Star Office to run on Windows/Solaris/Linux?

Perhaps Microsoft Office on the (Linux) Java Desktop?

You know, Linux is the best competition for Windows since OS 2 / Warp.

And Linux is gaining every day ...