Read Eric Raymond's Open Letter to Scott McNealy: "Let Java Go"
Read "Letting Java Go" - James Gosling in 2003 on Open-Sourcing Java
As if driven by the cycles of the moon, it seems like the Java community gets
a monthly visit from that special topic that divides and angers us more than
any other: the question of whether Sun should "open source" Java? Most
recently a top open source advocate named Eric Raymond (author of The
Cathedral And The Bazaar) published an open letter to Sun urging them to "Let
Java Go." I have huge respect for the achievements of the open source
community, but I tend to stay away from the pissing contests that these
discussions about open sourcing Java often devolve into.
I think the issue is something of a bugaboo, anyway. The source code for Java
is readily available to anyone who accepts the Sun Community Source License
(SCSL.) You can fix p... (more)
(August 30, 2002) - It's interesting to discuss this on the day that Michael
Skakel, the "Kennedy cousin", is sentenced to 20 years to life for killing a
woman 25 years ago. Someone mentioned to me that it seems a harsh punishment
for something that happened so long ago, and I could only reply, "She's still
dead."
Five years ago, almost to the day, Microsoft shipped IE4 with a JVM that was
intentionally engineered to provide leverage to corrupt and pollute Java
compatibility standards. The US District Court clearly found Microsoft guilty
of illegal anticompetitive behavior with r... (more)
Read "No Sun Is An Island" - also by Rick Ross
I can neither endorse nor denounce the Sun/Microsoft settlement at this
point. Those of us on the outside have no access to the particulars of the
settlement and have no way to know whether Sun has sold us out. In truth,
precious little of the corporate messaging has specifically referenced Java.
It would be nice to paint a positive picture, but experience has proven that
we shouldn't be too quick to believe what corporations convey in their highly
managed dog-and-pony shows. They made a similar set of happy announcements
when Micros... (more)
J2EE AND WEB SERVICES BOTH FEATURE HIGH
ON THE AGENDA AS ORACLE RE-ENTERS
DEVELOPER TOOLS SPACE WITH A BANG
I returned just yesterday from a fantastic trip to San Francisco for Oracle's
OpenWorld conference. It wasn't clear what to expect when I accepted Oracle's
invitation to give a presentation, but I was delighted to find the show had a
high-energy crowd that was very tuned in to Java, especially J2EE and Web
services. The whole show was great, but the most interesting and important
items came from Oracle, itself - Oracle9i Application Server Release 2 and
Oracle9i JDeveloper.
... (more)
When my dear friend Allan had major surgery a couple of years ago, I was
thankful for the specialists who were able to meet his needs and provide him
with critical care. The success of his procedure was absolutely dependent
upon the exceptional skills of these specialists - without whom failure would
have been certain. In software development, as in medicine, we have a need
for specialists to help manage the enormous complexity that confronts us on a
regular basis.
Object-oriented programming gurus have historically predicted the evolution
of a thriving economy based on the sale ... (more)
Rick Ross is the founder of Javalobby (www.javalobby.org). He is a frequent speaker at Java-related events and a well-known advocate for Java developer interests.
Chris Koenig
Mark Clifton
Steve Cumings
John Igoe
Scott Lee
Scott Sellers
Anthony Franco
Daniel Morris
Wayne Walls
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