Microsoft defends Java stand

NEW YORK--In an address at Internet World today, Microsoft (MSFT) Vice President Bob Muglia today reiterated the software giant's position on Java in no uncertain terms:

"Microsoft is 100 percent committed today, tomorrow, and into the future to support all Java applications developers want to write. It doesn't matter if it's branded '100 percent pure Java' or if it takes advantage of some things in Windows. We will take it and run it."

Muglia made his remarks a day after Microsoft and the Sun Microsystems' JavaSoft division rekindled their fight about whether Microsoft is fully backing the Java programming language.

Reviewing the last year, Muglia gave a Microsoft mea culpa: "A year ago, the press said we didn't get the Internet. A year ago, the press was right. We didn't get it yet."

Muglia also defined Microsoft Active Platform, an element in Microsoft's Internet strategy: "We will move forward based on industry standards, be they well-established or de facto and build the best implementation of those in the world."

To do so, he said, Microsoft will integrate the Internet and PC-based computing. "It all revolves around HTML, scripting, components, and access to the underlying system services," he said. "As we move forward, information, no matter where it is coming from, will be presented in a standard way."

Muglia also demonstrated several new or future products: its Internet Explorer 4.0 browser, Active Server, and Transaction Server.