Sun and Microsoft bury the hatchet

The CEOs of Sun and Microsoft
 , Scott McNealy and Steve Ballmer respectively, shook hands to make peace and figuratively 
 smoked the peace pipe. The two implacable rivals found common ground and agreed
 to work together more closely so their products could work better together.

Sun’s financial difficulties are well known. The $1.95 billion that 
 Microsoft will pay Sun as part of the peace process will be a welcome cash injection. 
 Microsoft, in turn, gets an agreement that will help it appeal the findings of the 
 European Union’s antitrust investigation.

The companies committed to working together in the following areas.

Technical cooperation
 
 The companies will get access to aspects of each other’s server technology
 so they can develop software that works better together. They’ll also cooperate 
 on authorization and authentication and on sharing information between
 Microsoft Active Directory and Sun Java System Identity Server. 
 
 Microsoft Communications Protocol Program
 
 Sun accepts the terms of the Microsoft Communications Protocol Program, which allows
 the parties to share and exchange information about communication protocols. 
 
 Microsoft Support for Java
 Microsoft can continue providing support for Microsoft Java Virtual Machine.
 Windows certification for Sun servers
 
 The companies agreed to certify Windows as a platform for Sun Xeon servers with Intel processors,
 with certification for Sun Opteron servers with AMD processors to follow.
 
 Future cooperation on Java and .NET 
 
 The companies committed to working together to improve technical interoperability between
 Java and .NET.
 
 Patents and Intellectual Property
 Mutual recognition of patents and possible collaboration in this area in the future.
 Legal settlement 
 
 An agreement to settle their U.S. litigation and resolve the dispute within the EU.

What’s left to say? The optimist cheers. The pessimist mutters that the wolf got fed and the goat stayed whole. 
 Here are more sources and comments.

• (2 April 2004, official statement from Sun) MICROSOFT AND SUN MICROSYSTEMS ENTER BROAD COOPERATION AGREEMENT; SETTLE OUTSTANDING LITIGATION
• (5 April 2004, zive.cz) Tomáš Holčík Microsoft to pay Sun almost two billion dollars
• (2 April 2004, TheServerSide.com) Dion Almaer Sun announces peace with Microsoft: Legal and technical
• Microsoft Communications Protocol Program