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First of all I would like to thank everybody that posted some comments to my previous
questions about open-sourcing Java. Now that I have different points of view I can
comment on them. Of course these are my comments, not Sun's ;-) There we go:
Fast, fast, fast
Some comments state that Sun is slow solving issues ("you have to wait Sun to take
your submission", "Sun react too slow to big issues", etc.)
Well, I don't know what slow is. I mean, that's quite a subjective question.
Lots of people think Debian is slow, for instance. I disagree: Debian is released
whenever Debian is ready. Nor sooner nor later. Of course if you want to deliver
good quality software you need some time. I don't mean that
Good Software Takes Ten Years. Get Used To it, but you need some time.
Mono, for instance, has taken some years to build 1.0. And it seems they're not up
yet with Microsoft .NOT stuff (well, that's a moving target, so it's difficult).
Lots of open-source people get used to the "release-often" approach. I don't mean it's
a bad method, it's just a way to do things. That's ok whenever your users are beta
testers: you can detect bugs easily. Furthermore, most users get used to have to
keep track manually of dependencies, I mean: lots of open-source projects depend on
other open-source projects which are in turn released often, so whenever you want to
upgrade one you have to upgrade different others, and this is a nightmare of
upgrades.
I wouldn't like that to happen with Java. It's a pain in the neck. I just prefer to
have a new Java version whenever the version is ready. And if it has any bugs in it
I'd like them to be publicly available, say in a web page or something, so I can
go and see if there's a problem there. And I'd like them to be solved in the next
Java release. In such a big thing as Java is (with lots of libraries there) is difficult
to solve all bugs. There's no software without bugs. All I want is to be able to vote
for bugs so the more important to me are solved. So people can concentrate in those
bugs annoying me.
And that's exactly what's happening with Java. So I don't see a reason to change it.
JCP is open to open source
Some other comments state that you have to belong to a Big Company to participate in
the Java Community Process. I know that the Apache Foundation and JBoss, Inc. are
big companies, but they are part of the Open Source Movement, so I assume the Open
Source Movement is participating in the JCP.
So JCP is open to open source.
But it's open as well to individuals. To experts.
All that is required is to do some work at the JCP. I mean, if you become an
expert I assume you are supposed to do some real work, not just be there hanging around
at your spare time. (And this is just my opinion: I'm not an expert at the moment, mainly
because I cannot do any more real work at all ;-) ).
Saving Sun's money
Some of the comments state that open sourcing Java is a money-saving technique for
Sun ("this will cost Sun a lot").
Now I understand the reason why IBM is pushing to open-source Java !! ( ;-) )
Now, seriously, I think Sun people is smart enough to decide on how to save money by themselves.
No help from IBM needed at the moment. They could
start by reducing the funds for R&D to a minimum, to the same level as other companies.
But then we wouldn't have HotSpot, those nice featured, high-technology garbage collectors,
not even a Real Time Java, nor a sound, secure, operating system.
And that wouldn't be good for customers, nor for Java users, so it's a Bad Idea: I
still want Sun to deliver free hardware and free StarOffice licenses to the Open Source
and Academic Communities. I still want Sun to invest huge amounts of money
to build the Best Of The World garbage collection technology I can use in my laptop.
Making Sun save money is, indeed, a Bad Idea.
Open-Sourcing Java will reduce the bugs in J2EE
"They did a lot of work on the J2EE standard, and EJB's ended up being a big pain in everyone's butt."
Well, J2EE and EJBs have nothing to do with open-sourcing Java. Both J2EE and EJBs are being worked on
at the Java Community Process, which is (as far as I know) already open to everybody.
Distributing the JDK with Linux
Someone mentions that the JDK cannot be installed by default in a Linux distribution.
Well, this is a major problem to me too. I would like it to be installed everywhere. For free.
With no licensing restrictions. I also think Sun should fix that.
Kaffe and GnuClasspath
I have to agree that Sun should make things easiers for these groups to verify their implementations.
In fact it would be great if someone at Sun could collaborate with them in their implementations. That's
something Sun should consider, I think.
Conclusion
I still cannot see a real reason why Java should be open-sourced. In fact I think there's no
real reason to open-source Java. Even reading
Eric S. Raymond's Open Letter I can see no real reason at all.
"But Sun has done other things that make us wonder if the vision and courage to choose the open-source path are really there.", Eric says. Well, I do think Sun has vision and courage to go through the open-source path,
mainly because it is already in the open-source path. And this vision has been Sun's vision for quite
a long time now. We're not new to Open Source. We've open-sourced lots of things. We're open-sourcing
Solaris. We're open-sourcing Java3D. We're open-sourcing Looking Glass. We're not new to Open Source.
" if you're serious about preparing Sun for the future we can all see coming in which
code secrecy and proprietary lock-in will no longer be viable strategies ", Eric says.
Lock-in you say? Does JDBC lock you in in any proprietary database? Does J2EE lock you in
any proprietary application server? Does Java lock you in any proprietary operating system?
There's a misunderstanding here somewhere. We're about open systems and open source, not the
other way round. And we have always been, and, for sure, we will ever be.
Jean-Christophe Collet's
blog expresses it quite well: Sun is all about open-source and open-systems, Sun is
an open-source ally. It's *the* open-source ally. Sun will always be an open-source friend.
And that's one of the reasons why I like this company!!
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