Microsoft Java Virtual Machine

Performance The Microsoft JVM won the PC Magazine Editor's Choice Awards in 1997 and 1998 for best Java support. In 1998 a new release included the Java Native Interface which supplemented Microsoft's proprietary Raw Native Interface (RNI) and J/Direct. Microsoft claimed to have the fastest Java implementation for Windows, although IBM also made that claim in 1999 and beat the Microsoft and Sun virtual machines in the JavaWorld Volano test. Sun vs. Microsoft In October 1997, Sun Microsystems, the creator of Java, sued Microsoft for incompletely implementing the Java 1.1 standard. Windows XP The initial release of Windows XP in 2001 did not ship with a Java virtual machine, because of the settlement with Sun. The settlement required people who wanted to run Java Applets in Internet Explorer to download and install either the standard Sun Java virtual machine, or to download a copy of the Microsoft Java virtual machine. Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Windows XP was released on September 9, 2002. It contained post-RTM security fixes and hot-fixes, compatibility updates, optional .NET Framework support, and enabled technologies for new devices such as Tablet PCs. It also included the Microsoft Java virtual machine. On February 3, 2003, Microsoft re-released Service Pack 1 (SP1) as Service Pack 1a (SP1a). This release removed Microsoft's Java virtual machine in compliance with the lawsuit with Sun Microsystems. ==See also==