But because of the two companies' bitter rivalry, Sun won't fall in line with Microsoft. If Microsoft found a way to squeeze gold out of thin air, Sun still wouldn't accept it, and vice versa. Microsoft has the overwhelming strength to shape the market, so expect .Net to be around for a while. This virtual machine is similar to the JVM at the heart of Java. Microsoft isn't copying Sun, however.
Virtual machines date back a long time.
In the 1970s, the University of California at San Diego's P-Code was an early attempt at machine independence. It might have been more successful had the machines of the day had more horsepower. Of course, the only interpreters for VB run under Windows. As you may know, Microsoft and Sun were locked in a legal battle over Java until early this year when they reached a settlement. Microsoft wanted to make proprietary changes to Java and Sun felt this violated Microsoft's license.