Joshua

On December 15, Microsoft will retire a range of legacy products
from its Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) Subscriber Downloads
service, which the company designed to give developer subscribers
access to the company's most recent technologies and products. Citing
its settlement with Sun Microsystems over the use of
Microsoft-specific Java technologies in its products, Microsoft will
pull Microsoft BackOffice Server 2000, Microsoft MapPoint 2002, the
Microsoft Office 2000 suite and related products, Microsoft Office XP
Developer, Microsoft SQL Server 7.0, and Windows 98. All these
products include Microsoft Java Virtual Machine (JVM). However,
critics and conspiracy theorists have noted that the software giant
has until September 2004 to cease support for its products that
include JVM. Why is the company removing access to these products
almost a year ahead of schedule?
"Due to a settlement agreement reached in January 2001, Microsoft
is phasing out the Microsoft Virtual Machine from its products," MSDN
Subscriber Downloads Program Manager Andy Boyd posted on the MSDN
Subscriber Downloads site late last week. "As of December 15, 2003, we
will phase out several product families, and remove the Microsoft
Virtual Machine from others." Those largely unidentified products
include XP Professional Edition with Microsoft Office FrontPage, some
versions of Windows NT 4.0, and Microsoft Small Business Server (SBS)
2000; the company promises that by the end of 2003, these products
will no longer include JVM.
This change isn't the first time Microsoft has prematurely removed
products from MSDN. In February 2000, when the company released
Windows 2000, it alerted MSDN subscribers that it would no longer
automatically ship NT 4.0 on CD-ROM but would require subscribers to
specifically ask for the product if they wanted it. Following a huge
number of complaints from its customers, Microsoft restored NT 4.0 to
the default CD-ROM set that subscribers received.
So is this incident similar to Microsoft's 2000 faux pas? I don't
believe so. Unlike the default CD-ROM (and now, optionally, DVD) set
that subscribers obtain, MSDN Subscriber Downloads is specifically
designed to let programmers download the most recent Microsoft
products. Although some of these products (e.g., Office 2003, Win98)
are arguably still in wide use, most MSDN subscribers have already
received at least several copies of the products on CD-ROM or DVD. But
that logic isn't stopping Microsoft's critics and competitors from
crying foul. "It seems to me that [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 XP's [Digital Rights
Management--DRM]," Simon Phipps, Sun's chief technology evangelist,
told eWEEK. Office XP doesn't include DRM technology, so what Phipps
meant by this comment is unclear; I suspect he was referring to
Microsoft Product Activation, which prevents casual software piracy.

__________________
The Apexer formerly known as SnotRocket.

"Like I ****ing said, "Ok, so I hear it may be a repost. Blah But I had never seen it, so..." **** you Canta." -Jenny 12/4/2003