Underlining its commitment to mix and match products and support open environments, IBM has adopted Java with a zeal that would make a missionary blush.

CNN: IBM, the world's oldest start-up

For instance, IBM is using Java as the technical heart of its San Francisco Project, a set of frameworks for building business applications, such as integrated financial systems, by combining pre-built components such as accounts payable and receivable modules.

CNN: IBM, the world's oldest start-up

Oracle did not want to let IBM get its hands on Java and Solaris, and felt it had to react to what looks more and more like a thorough restructuring of the computer industry.

ECONOMIST: Computing

The idea, says Buell Duncan III , IBM's general manager for ISV and developer relations, is to create a network of companies large and small, which are conversant in both nonproprietary, or open, computing standards, like the Linux operating system or the Java programming language, and IBM's suite of hardware, middleware and services.

FORBES: Magazine Article

If you liked the trial, you'll love the judge's greatest-hits collection of Microsoft skullduggery: binding its Internet Explorer browser into Windows just to beat out Netscape, bullying Intel into staying out of the software market, polluting Sun Microsystems' Java programming language to diminish the competitive threat it posed to Windows, threatening IBM.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia | Cover: 'Microsoft Enjoys Monopoly Power...'