Project Hamburg

All the folks in Sun Javaland (and yes, the Sun Accessibility Program Office is wedged in there -- go figure) today received an email with the following announcement:

Welcome to Project Hamburg, formerly known as 'Consumer JRE' (aka 'Consumer release')!

Effective immediately, the code name 'Project Hamburg' must be used instead of 'Consumer JRE' , 'Consumer release', or any other 'Consumer' variant.
...

This change has been approved by various people in Sun Java management and its use has been OK'ed by Sun's Trademark and Branding teams.

There was an FAQ included with this announcement, answering such questions as:

• What was wrong with 'Consumer JRE' or 'Consumer Release'?
• Why 'Project Hamburg'?
• What is the status of Project Hamburg?
• Where can I find more information about Project Hamburg?
• What should I tell people outside Sun?
• Can I test Project Hamburg?

We are encouraged to mention the code name change to people who have already heard about 'Consumer JRE' or 'Consumer release' through our presentations at JavaOne, through the Java.net blogs, or through other means.

So I've just done that.

The naming change is interesting. Here's the answer to the "Why Project Hamburg" question:

We recognize that code names and product names are a very hot topic at Sun, and we do not expect everybody to like this new code name. However, in the interest of time, and with the objective to avoid any potential trademark litigation, Java marketing came to the conclusion that using 'Project' + a location name was the best way to go.

Project Hamburg was proposed as a reference to the fact Thorsten Laux, who has been championing this project, has lived for many years in Hamburg, Germany. Additionally, there are a number of interesting facts that can be highlighted with regards to Hamburg (see entry in Wikipedia):

• Hamburg has a rich commerce history going back to the medieval Hanseatic league (there's an easy parallel that can be established between an alliance of trading guilds, such as the Hanseatic league, and the JCP)

• Hamburg is the largest city in the European Union which is not a national capital (this project is introducing significant changes to the JRE without being associated to any new JSR)

• Hamburg is commonly referred as StarDivision's original location (the right answer is Lunenburg, located about 50km southeast of Hamburg)

And finally, here (from somebody who probably wishes to remain anonymous), are the top ten comments received, after the renaming:

10. I'd like mine with cheese, please.
9. The "mystery meat" is Duke's big toe.
8. Warning: eating undercooked code can cause system failure.
7. Let's hope it comes bug free.
6. Say it right to keep yourself out of a pickle.
5. P.H. balanced for your hair washing pleasure.
4. I was just getting used to the change from SUNW to JAVA.
3. Lettuce know if there will be another name change soon.
2. What if I'm vegetarian?
1. Beats Project Frankfurt, I guess.

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( Sep 13 2007, 12:12:53 PM PDT ) [Listen] Permalink Comments [3]