Although I rarely use Studio not being a dev and all I do see the value in having an open source compiler. I'll second Steve's quest. Is it all a possibility?

Posted by che on June 28, 2006 at 06:08 AM PDT #

Richard has it exactly right. Sun's direction is to make all software opensource and free (two different things). So, yes, the long-term objective is indeed to do the open-source thing. At this stage, the discussion isnt about whether to open-source or not, but when and how. Its a significant effort for an organization that has not had the resources "to spare" and I dont see this as a marketing benefit/drawback that will help Sun with greater acceptance. We might do this in small steps so as to minimize the resource impact. As a development engineering manager, I'm having a hard time expressing how doing this with 10 engineers gives us (Sun, community) more value than say producing the next three DRDT like tools (just as an example). I see a more of a crying need for more CMT/MT tools than I see a need for this. Feel free to send me feedback to the contrary and maybe we can build a case, if I'm sufficiently overwhelmed, to improve its urgency. Especially in the days when Sun is cutting engineering resources (notice the latest announcement from Sun for headcount reduction, which is sure to affect R&D), this is a tough call to make. So we'll do both (better CMT tools and incremental push towards opensourcing) at a pace we can afford. Hope that explanation helps!

Posted by Vijay Tatkar on June 28, 2006 at 11:19 AM PDT #