Microsoft Liquid Motion was a product from Microsoft to create Java animations. [1] [2] [3] It was based on technology acquired from Dimension-X. [4] A beta was released in 1998, [5] and version 1.0 was released soon thereafter to compete with Macromedia Flash. The product was eventually discontinued by Microsoft in 2000 due to lack of popularity. [6] [7] Since Liquid Motion created Java-based animations, they were cross-platform and browser-independent.