Sun emerges from the Microsoft settlement in good shape. The Sun-Microsoft alliance has been broadly perceived as an attack on Linux and the bailout of a weakened antagonist to preserve the illusion of competition. Certainly the deal is all about intellectual property, with licensing money flowing between Redmond and Menlo Park. The cash transfers recall the much lower number of dollars ($150 million) that accompanied the Apple bearhug in 1997 when Microsoft needed the continued existence of at least one other operating system after OS/2's demise.
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