If the settlement had come yesterday, would anyone have believed it? Sun and Microsoft settled their century long trial with a somewhat largish payment of $1.6b changing hands as part of the deal. The money is a handy thing, I'd imagine, but the funny thing was that both parties said they would collaborate on technology, etc, etc....

Collaborate? Do you guys think this is legit, or is it post-settlement afterglow happytalk? Well, I know which one I think it is, but I'd love to hear what you guys think.

An interesting side-effect is that this frees Microsoft to do a dividend. Although I can't imagine anyone really believing the line that Microsoft was holding back because of sun. That's a bit far fetched.

I should also point out that this guy, Charles DiBona, who is quoted in this ar ticle, ain't me. He's some financial analyst Johnnie come lately to the computer business. You could say we have a namespace issue going on here.

Anyhow, in about a week, LJN will feature a Kevin Bedell interview of BEA Vice President Bob Griswold, who is in charge of JRockit. This is our first outside article, so I'm looking forward to that. We're still accepting abstracts and have a few others in the pipeline. Just forward them on to me and/or Art. I'd also be interested in seeing what kind of articles the readership would like to see, so comment if you like on that.