Yes, I agree that j++ was becoming something that no longer was java, as specified by Sun.  So if sun felt that the java name was being soiled, then they certainly had the right to stop what microsoft was doing.  But j++ did have a usefulness of its own, and now C# does.  It is java with a few things added that microsoft thought developers would want.
I didn't pay much attention to this aspect, but I thought MS was not allowed to do so.
MS is run by jerks who want more money.  That's pretty much the definition of a CEO.  It is the same for oracle and sun and everyone else.  I use whichever product is best, even if I hate who made it.

At the risk of swimming against the tide of Gatesians, I would recommend Borland Delphi.  It is an incredibly versitile development tool, combining the power of C++ with the ease-of-use of Visual Basic.  The backbone language of Delphi is Pascal, which is fairly easy to learn.  I have been using Delphi for six years and I have yet to find anything better.

Zonan, there's a real good book called "COM and DCOM" by Roger Sessions that makes a good argument for including COM in the Java language, but once MS lost the law suit, the point of the book was kind of moot. But now that C# is here, it may have meaning again.

I use whatever the customer specifies too (I have to), which of late, has been whatever I want to use. So I choose Borland C++ Builder as often as I'm allowed.

They want C++, but when I tell them it will take so many additional hours to use VC++/MFC because MFC is such as low-level framework (as well as a hack), they almost always take my suggestion and go with Builder.

Delphi is good too, but if they want C++, Builder is the way to go. Plus I can entice them with a mostly painless port to Linux in the future, and that usually seals the deal.

No, Microsoft was the one who consciously chose to stop shipping VM after Sun continued their proactive assistance with the Justice Department anti-trust investigation.

Uncle Bill told Scott Mc to take a flying leap.

Since Uncle Bill controlls 80% of all PC desktops, forcing someone to download JVM (what is now a 40 megabyte install package) was definately a blow to Sun.