“We really are working towards a world where both Sun and Microsoft products coexist,� said Greg Papadopoulos, Sun's chief technical officer. “We’re going to ensure unique levels of interoperability.
“One thing that I have found really refreshing in this whole alliance [is] the fact that the companies actually end up being more similar than different in terms of intellectual property and how we approach R&D,� Papadopoulos said.
Hank Vigil, corporate vice-president for consumer strategy and partnerships at Microsoft, said the software giant is "quite pleased" with the progress the companies have made in the early stages of the relationship, founded in April.
There have been weekly meetings between "relationship managers" to check progress and resolve problems, they said.
There have also been 15 executive meetings, and monthly meetings between engineers.
Papadopoulos has met Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates, and Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer has met Sun chairman, president, and chief executive Scott McNealy.
The two suppliers have co-authored four web services specifications in the past six months, including WS-Addressing, which was submitted to the W3C, as well as WS-Eventing, WS-MetadataExchange, and WS-Management.
Microsoft, meanwhile, is referring customers wanting Java on Windows to Sun’s JVM, since Microsoft’s JVM is not being upgraded. The companies and their partners are working to ensure Java products run well on Windows.
Sun shines on interoperability progress with Microsoft