Friday August 18, 2006
Open Source Java SE: Who gives a fig ?
Filed under: opensource
Who cares ? Five days after our announcement on Monday, I felt it was time to digest the reactions around the Java world to the news.
Missed opportunity for word playI was all geared up for a slew of press headlines marrying 'Sun' with some combination of 'rise', 'set', 'shine', 'burn', 'spot' or 'screen'. And, you know, a graphic of a sun cresting over a choppy sea full of joyous penguins or something.
But instead we've had a real treat of a large number of articles that mostly accurately represent the plan we announced on Monday. For example: CNET, Internetnews, eWeek, TecnNewsWorld, DevX, all with sober headlines.
(OK, one of them couldn't resist.)
You did ask...
Much of the complexity in Sun making this move is for us
to do so in a responsible manner with regard to to the other vendors
who have embraced Java technology. I imagine BEA will be pleased at
this latest news given their past
beseechings, and current 'blended
strategy' on Open Source (chirp...). A hasty reaction
from some folks from IBM
appears to have been mostly made facing
upwind, except for some free product feedback
they got. More helpfully, and critical to our getting this right, have been some very constructive assessments and advice from people like Geir, Dalibor and Tom who really know this stuff because they have or are working on open source implementations of Java SE already.
OK, but just don't break it for us
For me, the most interesting reactions have been those from Java developers. Perhaps in the long anticipation of this completion of opening up the development of the Java platform codebases, much of the heat and fire has been dissapated. So I have to say that the volume of debate in the fora that I have been following has not eclipsed other burning issues of the day. But the reactions appear to have been largely focussed on the mechanics of rolling out the
program, rather than on its merits. Though of course
there are some colorful
exceptions. Debates on the central issue of the choice
of licence appear as a popular
discussion point, though there does not appear to be a consensus.
My own suspicion as to why being that the consequences of the choice
are complex to divine. Law school anyone ? There have been a couple of sinister
theories that I probably won't lose any sleep about, and some misinformation
about Java EE [Update: That got corrected since I posted this]. And there I was, thinking everyone knew that our
implementation is already
open source. But I was happy to see that one of the potential
benefits that Java SE will go
where no Java SE has gone
before, is being discussed by others too.
Of course, what I suspect many developers feel on this topic is
indifference to mild concern: that they do not care how Java is made,
but just that
it's there
and that it
works. No surprise then that there are some
worries that it might not. We do well to keep them at the front of our minds.
Posted by dannycoward ( Aug 18 2006, 03:07:38 PM PDT ) Permalink Comments [2]
