The Software Development Forum: MS v. Sun

The Software Development Forum (SDForum), the largest not-for-profit software organization in Silicon Valley, hosted a ruckus evening of debate between the two biggest players in the bright future of Web services, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems, or more specifically, .Net and J2EE. The debate was held in its most classic form, you know the one, a WWE-themed spin-off of SmackDown. Your ‘contenders’ were evangelists and tech gurus from their respective corporations, the ‘referees’ were upstanding members of the software community from both media outlets and local Java and .Net user groups, and the whole event was ‘moderated,’ or maybe better put, ‘Vince McMahoned,’ by the director of the SDForum, Laura Merling. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend this lively event in Redwood Shores, Calif., which was, oddly enough, hosted only blocks from Oracle’s monstrous campus.