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More on Sun's Open Source Java Move

If Sun Microsystems wanted to contribute Java code to the open source Apache Software Foundation, Apache would be glad to have it, according to an Apache official on Monday.

"We've never asked for the code from Sun - our work in the Java ecosystem has been about ensuring that free and open source implementations of Java specifications are possible," said Geir Magnusson Jr., vice president of the Apache Harmony Java project and Apache's executive committee representative on the Java Community Process (JCP). The JCP is the formal upgrading process for Java.

"That said, clearly we'd welcome the contribution from Sun," Magnusson said in an email. The prospect of Apache taking jurisdiction over Java was raised by IBM on Monday, as Sun made Java available under the GNU General Public License 2.

Apache: We'd take Java

IBM on Monday urged Sun Microsystems to participate in existing open-source Java projects at the Apache Foundation rather than start new ones.

Java creator Sun on Monday announced that it is releasing its Java desktop and mobile software under the General Public License (GPL) version 2.

The code will be implementations of standards called Java Platform Standard Edition (Java SE) and Java Platform Mobile Edition (Java ME). The code to Sun's Java server is available through the GPL now as well.

After years of internal debates and public calls from IBM to make Java open source, you would think that IBM would be overjoyed at the news.

Not so.

IBM cool to Sun's open-source Java plan

Well, at long, long -- repeat after me -- long last, Sun has open-sourced Java. At first, Sun rejected the idea, but the company finally has come around to it. And, not only that, Sun's doing under the GPL.

Frankly, I think Sun finally did this because it had no choice in the matter. My only question, as someone who's followed Java closely at times, isn't "What took them so long?" It's: "Did Sun do it in time?"

Sun took its own sweet time about open-sourcing Java, because for the longest time Sun has been of two minds about open-sourcing anything. Sun's golden years were when it made billions from proprietary hardware, SPARC, and proprietary software -- first SunOS, and then Solaris.

It took the company a long time to finally realize that Windows and Linux on cheap x86 hardware were ripping its profits right out from underneath it. Sun would play at open-source and x86, but the company would then sabotage its own efforts.

Is Java's move to GPL too late?

Although it may get some disagreement from IBM, SourceForge.com and Linus Torvalds, Sun Microsystems laid claim to being the world's largest contributor to the open-source software community Nov. 13 by turning over millions of lines of Java code to the governance of the GNU General Public License, v2.0.

And not a moment too soon for software developers worldwide and some of their more well-known open-source spokespeople, including Free Software Foundation founder Richard Stallman, publisher Tim O'Reilly and intellectual property attorney and professor Eben Moglen.

"This is less about the code itself than it is about building volume in the network effort: The more people that join a network, the more valuable the network gets," Sun President and CEO Jonathan Schwartz told a gathering of Sun employees and guests in the auditorium of the company's Santa Clara, Calif., headquarters.

Sun Offers Backstory on Java Transition

Today marks the rebirth of Java. Sun has announced their intent to release the source code for Java under the GPL. If this isn't some of the best news in a long time, I don't know what is.

Sun isn't releasing all of the code. It seems there are parts of Java Sun doesn't own, and for which Sun hasn't been able to negotiate releasing under the GPL. But, it appears this is a tiny bit of the code.

This is the most important announcement for free software in quite a few months. Java is a big part of many enterprise applications. Although the free software world has had Blackdown and Kaffe as a Java platforms, they are not nearly as complete as the official Sun version, though both are very good free software projects.

Sun's right move: GPL Java

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