Features

Microsoft must respond to
Sun injunction request by Oct. 4 

BALTIMORE — Microsoft Corp. must respond by Oct. 4 to Sun Microsystems’ request for a federal court injunction that would require the software giant to integrate Sun’s Java programming into Windows, a spokeswoman for Sun reported Wednesday. 

U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz set a Dec. 3 hearing on Sun’s request for the preliminary injunction, in which Sun also asks that Microsoft be prevented from distributing Virtual Machine for Java in an unlicensed manner. 

Java is software used to run servers that run large computer networks. 

Oracle introduces new guide
to explain prices, policies 

REDWOOD SHORES — Hoping to quell criticism of its sales practices, slumping business software maker Oracle Corp. on Wednesday introduced a new customer guide that spells out its pricing policies. 

Redwood Shores-based Oracle characterized the 40-page guide as a breakthrough in an industry that often hammers out complex business deals in a freewheeling style similar to the back-and-forth negotiations of a used car lot.