According to sources inside Sun, an ongoing debate over whether to open-source Java is coming to a head with the JavaOne conference looming May 16. New Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz, who led the open-sourcing of Solaris, could not be reached for comment on the matter.
Nevertheless, opponents of the idea are trying "to get time with Schwartz now that he is CEO so they can get their point of view across before the JavaOne conference in May, where some speculate he may announce the open-sourcing of Java," said a source close to Sun who requested anonymity.
What Schwartz will ultimately decide on Java remains to be seen, but it's another item on his long to-do list. Schwartz, who took the reins from Scott McNealy April 24, has to keep Wall Street happy and structure Sun so it will be consistently profitable. Sun hasn't reported an annual profit since 2001 and had a loss of $217 million for the fiscal third quarter of 2006, which ended March 26.
So far, Sun has resisted many calls to open-source Java. The reason: Sun fears doing so will open the doors for competitors to grab and change Java, resulting in the kernel forking and compatibility problems.
News source: eWeek
Nevertheless, opponents of the idea are trying "to get time with Schwartz now that he is CEO so they can get their point of view across before the JavaOne conference in May, where some speculate he may announce the open-sourcing of Java," said a source close to Sun who requested anonymity.
What Schwartz will ultimately decide on Java remains to be seen, but it's another item on his long to-do list. Schwartz, who took the reins from Scott McNealy April 24, has to keep Wall Street happy and structure Sun so it will be consistently profitable. Sun hasn't reported an annual profit since 2001 and had a loss of $217 million for the fiscal third quarter of 2006, which ended March 26.
So far, Sun has resisted many calls to open-source Java. The reason: Sun fears doing so will open the doors for competitors to grab and change Java, resulting in the kernel forking and compatibility problems.
News source: eWeek
Too many Java sites out there want to serve you malware or trojans with their downloads, and I don't need the agrivation.
As long as it's to the same specs as Java, anyone can make a Java VM.
As far as Open Sorucing, I dont' see any advantage to this. Open Source is not the end all solution for everything, Everythign doesn't need to be, and should not be open Source.
Nothign gets magically better because it's Open source. It works to better some smaller projects, but mostly it just takes time from the actual devs time to actually create and implement new features, to check all the open source addition, verify them secure and well coded and implement them.
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