[ThrowawayB7]

Back when the word hacker still meant something, that was the opinion of most hackers. Microsoft being bad guys did not make early Java versions good.

[EDIT] I'd actually say MS losing the J# lawsuit was a net positive since it gave Hejlsberg the opportunity to create C#.

[croes]

What does it matter if Java was good or bad? The point is Windows API didn’t win on merit but because MS attacked every competition

[bartread]

That’s not really true: it just didn’t win on the merits you care about. But it did have other merits: backwards and forwards compatibility, excellent developer documentation, and no need for expensive workstation grade hardware.

I don’t disagree on the skullduggery, but it’s worth bearing in mind that Sun, Oracle, IBM, and all the other big vendors of that period engaged in similar skullduggery. Microsoft was simply better at it, had better timing/luck, and therefore more resources and reach to play those games.

But one of those companies was always destined to become a scumbag monopoly: if it hadn’t been Microsoft, it would have been one of the others.

And the war to kick them back into line through OSS would have played out similarly, I suspect.