<<The applause that greeted Sun Microsystems officials last week when
they said the company will offer Java to the open-source community
turned to concern as some users fretted over whether the programming
language will split into multiple versions.

Sun executives confirmed the long-anticipated open-source move during
the JavaOne conference here last week, although they said they still
need to devise a detailed plan to ensure that Java isn't put on
diverging paths.

Java consistency is essential to David Holberton, a J2EE developer at
a large aerospace company he asked not be named. Currently, the
versions of the Java Virtual Machine the company's J2EE applications
run on are consistent, Holberton said.

An open-source Java implementation "opens up innovation, but I'm
concerned about fragmentation," he said. Nonetheless, Holberton added
that he's "fairly confident" Sun can avoid any splitting of the code,
citing the company's longtime efforts to ensure a consistent
development environment.

Several other users, including Haroon Rafique, a systems developer at
the University of Toronto, also expressed concern that Java could head
down different paths once developers get access to the source code
under whatever open-source plan Sun devises.

"My concerns would be if they do open-source it -- and don't keep
control over it -- then you are going to have competing
implementations," said Rafique.

"I think the 'how' is going to be very important," said Andrew Smith,
a systems architect at Innovative Software Engineering in Iowa. Smith
wants to know how Sun will preserve compatibility, how testing will be
handled once the code is made open-source, and what will happen if a
variety of distributions emerge as they did with Linux.

Sun has yet to directly respond to such user concerns. The company
didn't provide a plan for preventing multiple Java versions last week,
nor did it disclose a timetable for the open-source effort or any
licensing details at JavaOne.

"There wasn't that much detail to the announcement," said Ari Kaplan,
a senior consultant at Datalink, a consulting firm in Chanhassen,
Minn. Kaplan said that despite the lack of specifics, he expects users
will, for the most part, welcome Sun's plan because of the growing
corporate popularity of open-source software.

However, Kaplan, who is also president of the Independent Oracle Users
Group, added that users often express concern about how well
open-source software is supported by vendors.

"The mainstream is generally positive as long as the quality,
scalability, security and compatibility remain intact," he said.
"Those things still remain to be seen."

At the conference, Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz said he gave Richard
Green, who heads the company's software division, the go-ahead to
develop a plan for releasing Java's source code. Schwartz said that
nothing will stop the open-source plan, which he contended will
broaden usage of the Java language by developers. He said he also
expects that the move will create new opportunities for the struggling
computer maker.

Mark Driver, an analyst at Gartner, argued that the open-source
statements from Sun executives were made "for effect" and that the
company doesn't necessarily plan to make Java open-source.

"They know they need to open-source Java to fulfill their larger
promise to embrace open-source," Driver said. However, he added, Sun
is fearful that providing open-source access to Java may prompt
Microsoft, The Apache Software Foundation or another vendor to create
implementations that aren't compatible with the current version.

"They think the existing open-source model does not give them the
guarantee of the lack of fragmentation," Driver said. "To their
credit, they understand that Java is a success today because ... they
have this giant stick and they can literally force compliance."

Jeff Kottke, a Java engineer at Dairyland Healthcare Solutions
welcomed the open-source idea. "It seems like open-source groups are
able to put out better code that works faster and cleaner," he said.

Likewise, Chris Fogel, a Java developer at a mobile wireless company
that he asked not be named, predicted that an open-source Java would
lead to wider adoption of the language.

Fogel and others point out that Java already has a community
development process -- the Java Community Proc-ess -- that is overseen
by Sun, which can approve or reject any proposed changes to the code.
But it won't be clear how any open-source move will affect development
"until it's actually out in the [open-source] community," Fogel said.
That's when you really find out, he added.>>

You can read this at:

<http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;1115830075;fp;4;fpid;611908207>

Gervas

--- In jini_javaspaces@yahoogroups.com, "Gervas Douglas"
<gervasdouglas@...> wrote:
>
> <<Have you heard? Sun Microsystems is open sourcing Java.
>
> "I think it's not a question of whether, it's a question of how," Rich
> Green, Sun's vice president of software, said at last week's 2006
> JavaOne Conference. Cheers all around.
>
> Scratch that. Truthfully, there were no champagne corks popped here at
> the InfoWorld offices following Sun's announcement. This is nothing
> more than the same equivocation we've heard again and again. The
> biggest question of all remains: When will it happen? And to that
> question there is still no answer.
>
> So why does Sun keep dragging its feet? I suspect the answer could be
> in your pocket right now.
>
> Green and others claim compatibility is the foremost concern, but I'm
> skeptical. If Java were fully open sourced, competing Java
> environments could break cross-platform compatibility and lock users
> into a single vendor's implementation. That's exactly what Sun alleges
> Microsoft tried to do back in the 1990s, which became the subject of a
> bitter lawsuit.
>
> But wait a minute. If a programmer writes Java code that accesses Mac
> OS X's Cocoa APIs, that software won't run on any other system but a
> Mac. Similarly, although the Eclipse project's SWT (Standard Widget
> Toolkit) GUI toolkit is cross-platform, it is optimized best for
> Windows. The truth is that developers often write Java code that's
> never meant to be cross-platform. To a certain extent, the
> compatibility argument is something of a red herring.
>
> Meanwhile, every time Sun invites InfoWorld staffers to hear about the
> bright future of Sun's software business, company execs always seem to
> spend a lot of time talking about the cool new games that run on Java
> cell phones. This leaves us scratching our heads somewhat -- we deal
> in enterprise IT, not consumer gadgets. But it's clear that this topic
> is very close to Sun's heart.
>
> And why not? While you and I can download Java for free for our Macs,
> PCs, and Linux boxes, mobile device manufacturers pay a license fee to
> Sun Microsystems for every Java-enabled handset they ship. For Sun it
> is (of all the unheard-of things) a revenue stream.
>
> Now imagine what would happen if Java were truly open source. What if
> Motorola, Nokia, Sony-Ericsson, and all the rest were free to create
> their own custom versions of Java that ran on their mobile handsets
> and other hardware?
>
> Something tells me that the kind of "compatibility" Sun wants to
> preserve in the Java community is the kind that keeps all those mobile
> device licensees compatible with Sun's bottom line -- not to mention
> all its other licensees, such as BEA and IBM. The full scope of the
> fees Sun receives from these has never been disclosed.
>
> It's a shame. Sun has been criticized in the past for not being able
> to make up its mind about Linux, and for not being able to make up its
> mind about open sourcing Java. But the truth may be much more
> problematic. It seems Sun can't make up its mind about what kind of
> company it is. Does it really believe that the future of the software
> business lies in the subscription/support model, as it claims? Does it
> really plan to open source all its software in the next 12 to 18
> months? Or does it want to continue acting like a closed, proprietary
> software company, relying on license fees from partner companies?
>
> Sun claims to want consistency across its software business.
> Unfortunately, it appears the question is not how it wants to do this,
> but whether it really wants to. And as for when it will make up its
> mind, that continues to be anybody's guess.>>
>
> You can find this at:
>
>
<http://ww6.infoworld.com/products/print_friendly.jsp?link=/article/06/05/22/785\
20_21OPopenent_1.html>
>
> Now did you know that the McAllisters are a sept of the Clanranald
> Macdonalds??
>
> Gervas
>