Interesting post from Hans Muller dealing with possible reasons Sun hasn't open sourced Java. He ends the post with this:
I think that one of the primary reasons that Java is not an open source project is that given the size of the developer community, forks are unacceptable. In other words the millions of developers who build software on top of Java value its stability more than they value the right to get under the hood and fix it.
It's something to think about but it does feel a bit like it's the easy answer. I don't think most developers would want to fork Java if the code was open. I think most would use the code as an education tool as well as be able to send in patches for fixes. If you have good stewards for a project, like the Linux kernel or GNOME or Apache or whatever, most don't see the need to fork but instead will send in thoughts and fixes.
Posted by Josh at June 26, 2003 12:56 PM | TrackBackI personally think that Sun can't open source Java for commercial reasons. They already get a lot of criticism from analysts for not making enough money off their software business, and Java is really the jewel in that crown!
I guess what they could do is open source most of Java, and keep things like J2EE closed--that way they could still make money off licensing...
Posted by: Buzz Andersen on June 27, 2003 09:42 PMI definitely agree about the commercial interests that Sun has with Java but I do think that they could open more things up. Perhaps like you mention, open up the jvm and keep the J2EE stuff closed.
Also, I think Swing would be greatly enhanced if it was open.
Posted by: Josh on June 27, 2003 11:13 PM