SunMink

Simon Phipps's other Weblog
(a WebMink in the Sun)

links for 2006-06-29

• Suns open source chief predicts software 3.0
  A reasonable article on my core point at OSBC - search SunMink for "Software Market 3.0" to hear what I really say :-)
  (tags: OSBC SimonPhipps clippings FOS OpenSource)
• Sun: Open source is about self-interest
  Not a very good report of my keynote - Matt Asay has it much better. This guy just wants to be a sensationalist.
  (tags: OSBC SimonPhipps clippings)
• Simon Phipps on "The Zen of Free" (OSBC London)
  Matt Asay is right on target with his summary of my keynote. Read this and then ask yourself whether the ZDNet guy was even at the same event...
  (tags: SimonPhipps OSBC clippings FOSS OpenSource MattAsay)
• Microsoft's CodePlex and Phipps's Software Market 3.0
  "Microsoft is to be applauded for opening up via projects like CodePlex, but if Simon Phipps's theory is right, it is an indication of how far Microsoft still has to go to catch up on understanding the open source model."
  (tags: SimonPhipps clippings Microsoft FOSS OpenSource)

Posted by webmink ( Jun 28 2006, 06:17:30 PM PDT ) Permalink

Whisper Chain Gets It Wrong

It's interesting looking at the way the whisper chain twists comments. At OSBC in London yesterday I answered a question about whether the open sourcing of Sun's Java implementation is years away. I replied as I usually do, indicating it's "months rather than years", making it clear that the way to interpret that comment is that it's double-digit months and not September! So the usual press sensationalism then took that comment out of its context to create the story that's in InfoWorld today.

Right at the top is something I did not say - that Sun is "months" away from releasing its trademark Java programming language under an open-source license with the normal usage implication that goes with that phrase. The Inquirer then joins the whisper chain and gets it even more wrong, saying Sun has indicated that it is only a few months from releasing Java under an open source licence - my word, it will be down to weeks soon at the rate the whisper chain is working.

The article does correctly point out the nature of the challenge, namely maintaining true compatibility. To be clear, The Sun Java team is working hard on the the decisions involved in open sourcing the Java platform, but the sheer size of the challenge means it's not going to happen in the next few weeks - come on, folks, get real. In best open source tradition, it will be ready when it's ready. All I am saying is it's really happening and that point is likely to be way sooner than the distant future Sun's detractors would like to imply!

Posted by webmink ( Jun 28 2006, 04:14:26 AM PDT ) Permalink Comments [8]