“Sun Microsystems might have responded to my open letter of 12
Feb (Let Java Go) by at least sketching a rational business case
for Sun’s rather inconsistent stance towards the open-source
community; that might have led to an interesting discussion.
Instead, Sun seems to have elected to try to shoot the messenger.
This is unfortunate and not what I expected. Nor is it likely to
win Sun friends or influence people–after all, I was only writing
what many people in the open-source community (including many of
Sun’s own employees) are thinking.“The response comes from Simon Phipps, Sun’s Chief Technology
Evangelist. Note that I have to go by published reports of his
response, as Sun did not extend the courtesy of sending me a full
copy and I have not yet seen one. It is possible that Mr. Phipps’s
full remarks are more sensible; I certainly hope they are, as the
excerpts suggest an astonishing lack of professionalism on
someone’s part…”