eWeek Pundits Debate Open-Source Java

Sun Needs to Open Source Java

"Is open sourcing Java a good idea for Sun? I think the answer is an unequivocal yes. I also think that the chances that Sun will actually open source it, especially since IBM suggested it is some where between slim and none. Darn it.

"I mean, come on, Sun has been flipping and flopping about Eclipse, an open-source integrated development environment (IDE) which started out with IBM sponsorship, for ages now. And, let's face it. For all the words spent about Eclipse, an IDE isn't much of a deal compared to Java..."

Complete Story

An Offer Sun Can Refuse

"But before we all join hands and go happily bounding down the Blue Brick Road, let's take a closer look at who's offering what, and why. Although IBM's Rod Smith was the author of the original open letter to Sun's Rob Gingell, IBM's director of WebSphere Infrastructure Software Bob Sutor was deployed to press the initiative.

"'We need an absolutely official open-source implementation of Java,' Sutor told eWEEK's Darryl Taft. This is the same Bob Sutor, who, as IBM's point man in the Web Services–Interoperability initiative, found a million ways to 'Just Say No to Sun involvement' in the IBM/Microsoft-dominated standards body..."

Complete Story

Related Stories:

• eWeek: Q&A: Raymond Expounds on Open Letter to Sun, McNealy(Mar 09, 2004)
• BBC: From Code War to Cold War(Mar 06, 2004)
• InfoWorld: IBM, Sun to Meet Over Open Source Java(Mar 05, 2004)
• Computer Business Review: Sun "Open" to Letting Java Go, with Strings(Mar 04, 2004)