Sun Microsystems" top software executive criticized 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 paralyzed with viruses and security breaches," Schwartz said in the letter, published Thursday.
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 percent 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.