Sun open source the technology formerly known as Java

Created by Stuart Yeates (University of Oxford) on November 13, 2006

There's been huge coverage of the fact that Sun Microsystems has announced that it will release the core products which it has been marketing as Java as open source.

What much of the coverage doesn't mention is that what they're open sourcing is not "Java," since they're not relinquishing that trademark, but merely something technically indistinguishable from it. Sun is likely to provide a comprehensive test suite and allow those that pass with flying colours to use certain trademarks in restricted ways, much as they did a few years ago with their 100% Java program several years ago.

The move from Sun is a logical response to the increasing maturity of the already GPL'd classpath and gcj projects, which taken together amount to a reimplementation of Java. By GPL'ing the "real" Java, Sun prevents the open source community from abandoning it for the the new contender.

Having two separate implementations of Java is actually a great thing, because it promotes competition between them. The Classpath/gcj implementation, for example is already available on far more platforms than Sun's java, simply because it is built the same portable framework as gcc, the Gnu Compiler Collection.

Read more on almost every tech news site.

cheers stuart

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		Sun open source the technology formerly known as Java Created by Stuart Yeates (University of Oxford) on November 13, 2006 There's been huge coverage of the fact that Sun Microsystems has announced that it will release the core products which it has been marketing as Java as open source. What much of the coverage doesn't mention is that what they're open sourcing is not "Java," since they're not relinquishing that trademark, but merely something technically indistinguishable from it. Sun is likely to provide a comprehensive test suite and allow those that pass with flying colours to use certain trademarks in restricted ways, much as they did a few years ago with their 100% Java program several years ago. The move from Sun is a logical response to the increasing maturity of the already GPL'd classpath and gcj projects, which taken together amount to a reimplementation of Java. By GPL'ing the "real" Java, Sun prevents the open source community from abandoning it for the the new contender. Having two separate implementations of Java is actually a great thing, because it promotes competition between them. The Classpath/gcj implementation, for example is already available on far more platforms than Sun's java, simply because it is built the same portable framework as gcc, the Gnu Compiler Collection. Read more on almost every tech news site. cheers stuart classpath \| Free Software \| GCC \| gcj \| Java \| open_source \| sun \| Sun Microsystems Stuart's blog Login or register to post comments 3605 reads
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