internetnews.com: Java Communities, Contributions Colliding

“The game of one-upmanship in the Java community continued this
week as Sun Microsystems defended its stewardship over its vested
interests in Java.

“The network computer maker has spent the last year making Java
more visible and more usable. But critics are dissatisfied with
Sun’s controversial views on monetizing the programming language
and related software platforms. The company has also come under
fire (mostly from its rivals) for its stance on open sourcing its
software, as well as its performance as hall-room monitor for the
various Java-related standards groups like the Java Tools Community
(JTC) and the Java Community Process. ‘An open-source JRE would be
a great thing for the community, and avoid problems for Sun later
on,’ Eric S. Raymond, president of the Open Source Initiative,
recently told internetnews.com. ‘If they don’t open-source now,
someone in the Java Community Process (the most likely candidate
being IBM) is going to issue a certified, Java-branded open source
implementation and rip control out of Sun’s hands, doing them far
more damage than if Sun controls the transition and keeps the Java
brand intact…'”

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