Thursday, August 28, 1997, page 12
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Microsoft's Rivals Tighten Alliance
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The Associated Press
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NEW YORK - Now that Apple Computer Inc. has defected, Microsoft Corp.'s remaining
opponents have struck a series of deals to tighten their alliance against the dominant maker
of personal-computer software.
International Business Machines Corp., Sun Microsystems Inc. and Netscape
Communications Corp. moved Tuesday to coordinate their work on a universal language for
developing software that works on any computer system - not just Microsoft's Windows.
The three companies said their engineers would work together to make sure the Java
language ran software formatted for different computers, ranging from Windows to Sun
machines. They also plan to fine-tune the language to lessen problems, as well as time new
releases so software developers get the latest versions at the same time.
In another move, Netscape plans to use Sun technology in its Internet browser, which
competes against Microsoft's browser, to improve how it works with software written in the
Java language.
In a third Java push, Sun announced licensing deals with three big telephone-equipment
makers that plan to use Java software in new phones, dubbed webphones, that can tap into the
Internet.
And Sun, Netscape and several other high-tech companies, but not Microsoft, proposed a
technical standard aimed at helping to unclog bottlenecks that have slowed the flow of
information on the Internet.
The agreements, unveiled at a New York trade show devoted to Java software, came after
Apple shocked the computer world by agreeing to a broad alliance with Microsoft that
includes a deal to develop a programming language that will compete with Sun's Java.
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