"Sun wants you to like Java. They want you to really, really
like Java. Maybe they even want you to just love Java to death.
In view of the recent flurry of activity and publicity
surrounding the protocol, the question remains: Is Java Open Source
or not? The answer from Sun has been a somewhat confusing, "Sort
of." The response from the open source community has been a
resounding, "Not even close."
"In his essay, The Java Gated Community Process, Elliotte Rusty
Harold sums up what appears to be the general attitude of the Open
Source movement toward the JCP:
'When you actually read the fine print, what the
Java Community Process says is that Sun agrees to let other
companies contribute their time, money, and knowledge to help Sun
do what it wants to do anyway. That may be intelligent business,
but it's not an open, community based process for developing
standards.' "
"Sun's Onno Kluyt responds: "That's quite a broad statement,
isn't it? If you look at the process, it's a mechanism that allows
companies to participate in the Java technologies and lead in those
developments. We now have roughly 95 projects in development, and
well over half of those are actually being led by other
companies."
