According to Cringely (thanks, Chris!), Sun's Jonathan Schwartz talks up the Windows API as key to "interoperability" aspects of the MS-Sun agreement. If true (and apparently this is straight from the horse's mouth), Cringely is right to say "...what Sun has actually obtained from Microsoft (beyond the money, of course) is less than nothing."
Frankly, the thought of a smart guy like Schwartz waxing enthusiastic about Windows APIs as the route to strengthening the Java Desktop is so difficult to believe that if it were anything less than first-hand reporting, I wouldn't give it credence. Much better than I could, Cringely's article gives the business argument against the value of letting Microsoft dictate your business strategy. At a more technical level, this is the exact scenario that Gosling poo-pooed as the work of conspiracy nuts: agreeing to help someone cook by getting together every Friday and deciphering a great big bowl of spaghetti. "Okay, we were talking about this strand last time, right? Picking things up, you can see it goes about another quarter-inch and then it turns here." "Oh, why's that?" "Okay, it's because of this piece over here, isn't it? See how that curves around right here?" "Oh, right! Boy, now we're really getting somewhere!"
I'm not saying that I have advice for what Sun should do, but dicking around with the Win32 APIs clearly ain't it.