The Open Sourcing of Java

Stephen Walli blogs about the open sourcing of Java. Stephen was at one of the meetings where Sun is discussing the open sourcing of Java.

About this move:

So Sun has a huge opportunity to “do it right” with Java. They began the release of Java EE 5 with the GlassFish project, and continue the work in the context of a culture shift that has delivered OpenSolaris. Now time will tell if they can harness all their collective experience in open source software, standards, and the JCP to bring about a complete open source Java world.

On Microsoft's positioning regarding Mono:

Microsoft continues to position mono as “an interesting science experiment” in its market commentary, despite its growing success, and to maintain an arm’s length ambiguity about the state and status of non-essential patents that may be infringed by mono.

Instead of encouraging multiple implementations of a standard they instigated, they discourage them. Instead of embracing open source collaborative development, innovation and contribution, they keep the community hobbled.