“Earlier this year, Sun Microsystems announced that it would
release the source code of the Community Edition of Forte for Java
under the Mozilla Public License model. The Community Edition is a
basic version of the soon-to-be-released (and not open source)
Internet Edition and the Enterprise Edition Java 2 development
environments.”
“Proclaiming that you will unveil source code is a popular way
to generate press and attract the attention of developers these
days. It can also be a disaster. Free software proponents are
certain to pick apart your particular interpretation of open source
and declare it to be hogwash-or worse. Aware of this predilection,
Sun has left ample time between its announcement and the actual
release of the source code so that it can address the problems that
are bound to come up….”
“Through its acquisition of Forte software, Sun has taken a huge
leap into the enterprise development tools market. Other products
in Sun’s Forte product line include Forte C++, Forte 4GL, Forte
Fusion, Forte Fortran and Forte C. Collectively, these products are
known as Forte Developer 6 and have replaced Sun’s Workshop tools
for Solaris development.”