Quite right.

I guess my feeling, though. is that Sun overreacted when it sued Microsoft in connection with extensions to Java.

As I'm sure you know, a programmer isn't obligated to use proprietary extensions to a language, so as long as Microsoft's runtime was dedicated to supporting the most basic facets of the language--and my impression is that it was--there really isn't any problem.

I think Sun's been of two minds about Java stewardship. For a while they toyed with the idea of submitting control of the standard to ECMA, but eventually decided not to. I had hopes that they and ECMA would be able to work out some sort of agreement or understanding, because then a "disinterested," established standards body would have been involved, and the rather bitter Sun-Microsoft polarity would have been broken...in theory, anyway.

I guess in the end, as a player in a rough-and-tumble game, you don't want to make an enemy out of the 900lb gorilla. That's not a fair stipulation to put on anyone in what's supposed to be a fair competative environment (did I hear a snort of derision from Bowser?), but it might just be a hard fact-of-life.

Sun has angered and alienated a giant, and is now demanding a piggy-back ride. It makes me wonder sometimes if Sun isn't Java's worst enemy.