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Microsoft will phase out a slew of products as of December 15, citing its 2001 legal settlement with Sun Microsystems over Java as the impetus.
Among the products that Microsoft will no longer make available to customers through any of the Microsofts sales channels are Windows 98, SQL Server 7 and a number of versions of Office 2000, according to a note from a Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) program manager posted to a public Microsoft newsgroup. It also appears some versions of NT 4.0 are also due to be phased out, but as the note is ambiguous on this point, its impossible to tell which ones.
(Editors note: Microsoft officials amended their phase-out list after this story originally was published. Microsoft has now changed the phase out date from December 15 to December 23, 2003. And the company is now committing to update its Internet Security and Acceleration Server2000 product, rather than cut it from the list. And it is going to cut only the Terminal Server and Option Pack releases of NT 4.0, and will save the Workstation, Server and Enterprise Server releases.)
The December 4 note, which is featured on the MSDN Public Newsgroup, was signed by Andy Boyd, MSDN Subscriber Downloads program manager.
Due to a settlement agreement reached in January 2001, the following products are being phased out and will no longer available to customers through MSDN Subscriber Downloads or other channels at Microsoft,” according to Boyds note. “These products will be removed from MSDN Subscriber Downloads as of December 15th, 2003.”
The products targeted for phase-out are those that embed Microsofts Java Virtual Machine technology.
Other products on the Dec. 15 phase-out list include: Office XP Developer and Office 2000 Developer editions; Office 2000 Premium Service Release 1; BackOffice Server 2000; Internet Internet Security and Acceleration Server(ISA) 2000; Internet Explorer 5.5; and Visual Studio 6 Microsoft Developer Edition.
One developer, who requested anonymity, noted that a number of products on the due-to-be-phased-out list are key for many companies.
There are a “lot of important Microsoft items on that list that [we] developers use all the time [SQL 7] or for backward compatibility [Windows 98],” the developer said.
Whats behind the phase out? Sun Microsystems Inc., the creator of Java, sued Microsoft in 1997 for what Sun claimed was Microsofts improper use of Suns Java technology. Sun and Microsoft agreed to settle the suit in January 2001. Microsoft paid Sun $20 million and the two agreed to a plan for Microsoft to phase out products that included the older version of Microsoft Java that allegedly infringed on Suns Java copyrights and trademarks.
In his newsgroup posting, Boyd explained that a handful of flagship products will be spared from the phase out, including Office XP Professional with FrontPage; some unidentified versions of Windows NT 4.0 and Small Business Server 2000. These wont be phased out because Microsoft is planning to update them with “Java-compliant versions” of its virtual machine technology before Dec. 31, according to Boyd.
Next page: Timing bothers some observers, such as Sun.
Other Companies Question Timing
To some, the timing of Microsofts decision to phase out these products is a bit confusing. After all, earlier this fall, Sun and Microsoft agreed to extend the time period under which Microsoft is allowed to use Suns Java source and compatibility test suites. The two agreed to allow Microsoft to support the Microsoft Java Virtual Machine (MSJVM) until Sept. 30, 2004 “to permit a smooth transition from the MSJVM.”
Microsoft execs said today that the company is simply clearing the channel now, in anticipation of the Sept. 30, 2004, cut-off date.
Microsoft Developer Divisions Tony Goodhew said Microsoft has been communicating its Java phase-out strategy for about 18 months.
“As part of our settlement and license extension with Sun we can only modify the Microsoft virtual machine (VM) until Sep 30, 2004. After that date, we will not be able to modify the VM for any reason, including security,” Goodhew said. “We will not ship products that include a piece of software we can not provide security fixes for, thus we are phasing out some older products and re-releasing some older products without the VM. This applies to all channels.”
Some industry watchers agreed that the move was not unexpected.
“Most shops stopped using Java on the client (through browsers, at least) long ago, not only because of issues like the above, but because of the general pain of having to debug across multiple browser and JVM versions. So theres no impact there,” said Michael Gilpin, research director with market researcher Forrester Research.
“The people who are already using the applications like SQL Server 7 wont have to stop using them just because you cant download it from MSDN any more. What folks generally want to download from MSDN is newer versions, anyway, except in situations where a corporate standard has been defined on an older version, and a new employee needs to get it. So its theoretically possible that some people in that situation might be inconvenienced by this, but that will neither hurt nor help Microsoft nor Sun at this point. Its just getting into compliance with the settlement agreement,” Gilpin added.
But some, including Sun officials, wondered whether Microsofts announcement of a phase-out was a not-so-subtle attempt to force customers to upgrade to newer versions of Microsofts operating system, Office suite, database and other products.
“It seems to me that they [Microsoft] would be keen to use any excuse to get customers to upgrade, spend more money and get more locked in to things like Office 2003s DRM [digital rights management],” said Simon Phipps, Suns chief technology evangelist. “Fortunately all those customers now have another option. With the release of Sun Java Desktop System they dont have to buy new hardware so they can pay the Redmond Tax—they can use the existing hardware for Java Desktop. If it runs any of those operating systems it will run Java Desktop perfectly.”
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