Sun's manager of its Open Source Program Office speaks out on
Microsoft's "shared source":
"Sun doesn't claim Sun's Community Source Licensing
(SCSL) is open source, because we understand that it isn't. Our
choices for Java technology were made to protect a technology from
some well-known industry predators, and we have stated that we can
see a day when it will be sufficiently unprofitable to write
incompatible clones of Java technology. When that happens, we will
be able to make it fully open source. We will open Java technology
when it's possible for us to do so. We've said that before, and
we're saying it now.
What we are hearing from Microsoft is rhetoric that amounts to
"we've fixed open source," or "we have it so you can play in our
space." They don't understand that what they are talking about is
not open enough. They don't get it. And they don't get why. It is
similar to their claim that they didn't understand why it wasn't OK
to do what they did with Java technology.
When you lie down with a snake, you can't cry about getting
bitten, because a snake is a snake by its nature. I'm not saying
that Microsoft is bad people, I'm saying that the kind of business
they have engaged in for so long has made it more of a challenge
for them to make the switch, and they are not there yet. And I
question whether or not they are ever going to be there."
