In February 1999, just months after Microsoft shipped a sophisticated new version of its Visual J++ Java development environment, rumors emerged that the firm was developing an in-house replacement for Sun’s programming language.

What Microsoft had accomplished with Java was impressive: The software giant’s Java Virtual Machine (JVM) handily outperformed Sun’s JVM as well as all other third-party JVMs, with JavaWorld noting that “Microsoft … still stands alone as the only fast and scalable Java virtual machine … Customers with the highest website traffic currently have no other viable choice for a JVM.”