Comments
By Roger Strukhoff
Richard Davies wrote: The UK has a good crop of technology pioneers in cloud computing - for example ElasticHosts, FlexiScale, Flexiant, OnApp - and also some strong government initiatives such as G-Cloud. We will have to see whether this kind of technical leadership converts into swift mass-market adoption or not.
Jan. 8, 2012 11:38 AM EST
Cloud Computing
Conference & Expo
November 2-4, 2009 NYC
Register Today and SAVE !..
Did you read today's front page stories & breaking news?
SYS-CON.TV: JBoss's Seam: Eliminate Complexity and Build Next-Generation Web 2.0 Applications

2008 West
DIAMOND SPONSOR:
Data Direct
SOA, WOA and Cloud Computing: The New Frontier for Data Services
PLATINUM SPONSORS:
Red Hat
The Opening of Virtualization
GOLD SPONSORS:
Appsense
User Environment Management – The Third Layer of the Desktop
Cordys
Cloud Computing for Business Agility
EMC
CMIS: A Multi-Vendor Proposal for a Service-Based Content Management Interoperability Standard
Freedom OSS
Practical SOA” Max Yankelevich
Intel
Architecting an Enterprise Service Router (ESR) – A Cost-Effective Way to Scale SOA Across the Enterprise
Sensedia
Return on Assests: Bringing Visibility to your SOA Strategy
Symantec
Managing Hybrid Endpoint Environments
VMWare
Game-Changing Technology for Enterprise Clouds and Applications
Click For 2008 West
Event Webcasts

2008 West
PLATINUM SPONSORS:
Appcelerator
Get ‘Rich’ Quick: Rapid Prototyping for RIA with ZERO Server Code
Keynote Systems
Designing for and Managing Performance in the New Frontier of Rich Internet Applications
GOLD SPONSORS:
ICEsoft
How Can AJAX Improve Homeland Security?
Isomorphic
Beyond Widgets: What a RIA Platform Should Offer
Oracle
REAs: Rich Enterprise Applications
Click For 2008 Event Webcasts
In many cases, the end of the year gives you time to step back and take stock of the last 12 months. This is when many of us take a hard look at what worked and what did not, complete performance reviews, and formulate plans for the coming year. For me, it is all of those things plus a time when I u...
MORE »
SYS-CON.TV
Java Industry News
Jonathan Schwartz: Java Goes Open Source By The End Of This Year
I do not know why people make such a big deal out of the open sourcing Java

By: Yakov Fain
Oct. 26, 2006 08:30 AM

Yakov Fain's JDJ Blog

Yesterday, speaking at Oracle OpenWorld conference   Sun Microsystem Sun President/CEO Jonathan Schwartz said that Sun will announce the open-sourcing of the core Java platform in 30 to 60 days. This will be done under  an Open Source Initiative license – the same one as it was used for open-sourcing of the Solaris OS.

I do not know why people make such a big deal out of the open sourcing Java. I do not know who started this “Freedom to Java” movement, but Sun decided to respond. Fine. I like IT news and I never hesitate to  express my opinion on any of them, but this one is just a boring subject to me. I’ll drag this blog for another couple of paragraphs, but honestly, I do not care.

Sun Microsystems was reaching out to the Java community trying to ask their opinion on the subject. I was invited to participate in the conference calls on how to open source Java, but never accepted the invitation. I do not believe that open sourcing Java is good for the community as now we’ll face new issues such as how to deal with forked version of the language. Is your Java really Java or its Java++? Are you Sun Certified Java programmer? By the way, which Java are you certified in? Or, you are XYZ Certified Java Programmer!

James Gosling kept saying, that Java was always free, the source code was available to anyone, and he was absolutely right.  Having the source code of any language or tool available usually serves two goals:

1.    Learn the tool from inside just by looking at the code. See how the creators of the language did it, try to extend their classes as good as them or better, if you can.This was always available with Java

2.    Fix the bugs in the language without waiting for years until the  creators of the language will do so.

Speaking of the bugs…Sun has so called bug parade where  Java developers can vote for particular bugs, so Sun would prioritize the fixes properly. This site has proven to be ineffective, because Sun was ignoring this list. The top voted bug here is five years old. Finding a workaround by yourself was your main option. If you can't find a workaround yourself, Sun sells Developers Expert Assistance for $99 a case (not as in beer).

It remains to be seen if open sourcing Java will lead to quicker turnaround in bug fixes. I do not have anything else to say. I’ve read the news, expressed my absence of opinion on the news,  and will move one with my morning routine. Another day, another dollar.

Published Oct. 26, 2006— Reads 19,447 — Feedback 2
Copyright © 2006 SYS-CON Media, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
Syndicated stories and blog feeds, all rights reserved by the author.
About Yakov Fain
Yakov Fain is a Managing Director of Farata Systems, consulting, training and product company. He has authored several Java books, dozens of technical articles. SYS-CON Books released his latest co-authored book , Rich Internet Applications with Adobe Flex and Java: Secrets of the Masters in Spring 2007. Sun Microsystems has nominated and awarded Yakov with the title Java Champion. He leads the Princeton Java Users Group. He is an Adobe Certified Flex Instructor. Yakov co-athored the O'Reilly book "Enterprise Application Development with Flex". He twits at twitter.com/yfain.

In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in.

Register | Sign-in

Reader Feedback: Page 1 of 1

So all we need to do is look at the source code and trust Sun to make changes? I wish that were true. But what happens when Sun drops the ball?

Consider this: The Java compiler is broken when it comes to certain instances of multiple interface inheritance. Yes, the Sun compiler doesn't even follow the Java specification. Eclipse once had the same problem, but as Eclipse is open source, it was soon fixed:

https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=122881

I reported this issue to Sun. I can't even point to a Sun bug report, because they ignored me. I announced this on the Sun Java forums, but no one at Sun took the trouble to investigate:

http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?forumID=7&threadID=687004

See a similar issue, though, which has been open over a year and never addressed:

http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=6278587

Yes, again Eclipse fixed this problem right away:

https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=98538

Read the Java forum thread here:

http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=632009&tstart=0

In fact, I can't even compile my Guise(TM) AJAX framework ( http://www.guiseframework.com/ ) using the Sun Java compiler---I have to use Eclipse, which actually follows the Java specification and doesn't crash like the Sun compiler does.

So open-sourcing Java brings no advantages---we just sit back and trust Sun to fix their stuff? History doesn't support your viewpoint.

I do not know why people make such a big deal out of the open sourcing Java. I do not know who started this 'Freedom to Java' movement, but Sun decided to respond. Fine. I like IT news and I never hesitate to express my opinion on any of them, but this one is just a boring subject to me. I'll drag this blog for another couple of paragraphs, but honestly, I do not care.


Your Feedback
Garret Wilson wrote: So all we need to do is look at the source code and trust Sun to make changes? I wish that were true. But what happens when Sun drops the ball? Consider this: The Java compiler is broken when it comes to certain instances of multiple interface inheritance. Yes, the Sun compiler doesn't even follow the Java specification. Eclipse once had the same problem, but as Eclipse is open source, it was soon fixed: https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=122881 I reported this issue to Sun. I can't even point to a Sun bug report, because they ignored me. I announced this on the Sun Java forums, but no one at Sun took the trouble to investigate: http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?forumID=7&threadID=687004 See a similar issue, though, which has been open over a year and never addressed: http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=6278587 Yes, again Eclipse fixed t...
JDJ News Desk wrote: I do not know why people make such a big deal out of the open sourcing Java. I do not know who started this 'Freedom to Java' movement, but Sun decided to respond. Fine. I like IT news and I never hesitate to express my opinion on any of them, but this one is just a boring subject to me. I'll drag this blog for another couple of paragraphs, but honestly, I do not care.
SOA World Latest Stories
By Maureen O'Gara
In a surprise move on Tuesday, January 10, Oracle wheeled out its Big Data Appliance. That’s the one it said in October would be ready sometime in the first half. Only nobody believed it meant early in the first half. Heck, it’s not even clear anybody thought Oracle could make the fi...
By Maureen O'Gara
A Munich court Thursday found Motorola Mobility guilty of infringing an Apple patent and handed Apple a permanent injunction against two Android smartphones. Apple can enforce the injunction after posting a bond lest MMI succeed in invalidating the slide-to-unlock patent (EP1964022) ...
By Tomer Teller
Quick Response (QR) codes are intended to help direct users quickly and easily to information about products and services, but they are also starting to be used for social engineering exploits. This article looks at the emergence of QR scan scams and the rising concern for users today....
By Maureen O'Gara
The Chinese company that claims it owns the iPad trademark says it plans to seek a ban on iPad exports out of China, threatening global supplies. According to what a lawyer for Proview Technology (Shenzhen) Co Ltd told Reuters, the firm is petitioning Chinese customs to stop shipment...
By Maureen O'Gara
Cisco Wednesday filed suit in the European Union’s second-highest court, the General Court in Luxembourg, challenging the European Commission’s rubber stamp last October of Microsoft’s $8.5 billion acquisition of Skype. Cisco says it isn’t opposed to the merger, but figures the EC sh...
By Pat Romanski
2011 was a year of rapid adoption for public and private cloud services. Instant and on-demand server provisioning was the driving force behind the massive growth. On top, cloud server templates and script automation simplified application installation for simple and pre-defined applic...
MORE »
Subscribe to the World's Most Powerful Newsletters
Subscribe to Our Rss Feeds & Get Your SYS-CON News Live!
Click to Add our RSS Feeds to the Service of Your Choice:
Google Reader or Homepage Add to My Yahoo! Subscribe with Bloglines Subscribe in NewsGator Online
myFeedster Add to My AOL Subscribe in Rojo Add 'Hugg' to Newsburst from CNET News.com Kinja Digest View Additional SYS-CON Feeds
Publish Your Article! Please send it to editorial(at)sys-con.com!

Advertise on this site! Contact advertising(at)sys-con.com! 201 802-3021

SYS-CON Featured Whitepapers
Most Read This Week
By Jeremy Geelan
By Bob Hockman
By Brian McCallion
By Steven Yaskin
By Jeremy Geelan
By Jeremy Geelan
By Udayan Banerjee
By Jeremy Hess
By Udayan Banerjee
By Maureen O'Gara
By Liz McMillan
By Hollis Tibbetts
ADS BY GOOGLE