The goal of open sourcing parts of Java inched closer to reality this week
thanks to some vigorous discussion by technology leaders.
Executives at Sun Microsystems have not ruled out the
possibility of opening the programming language they steward, but some of
the proposals they’ve seen do give them pause.
While the company is considering open sourcing Java, even
through models based on Cafi or GNU Classpath, it claims it’s stuck
between competitors who want to destroy Java’s value proposition by
advancing their own implementations, and developers who want Sun to
“give up control.”
But hold on, said BEA Systems , which has a proposal
before the Java Community Process that could allow more wiggle room between
Sun’s concerns and the hopes of the Free and Open Source Society.
BEA CTO Scott Dietzen resurrected his company’s plan during a panel
discussion at O’Reilly’s Open Source Convention this week.
“I would like to propose a middle ground based on control of the Java
namespace and brand,” Dietzen said.
Open source guru Eric Raymond, CollabNet founder and CTO Brian Behlendorf, and moderator/publisher Tim
O’Reilly, all of whom comprised the panel, supported the proposal.
Even Sun Java evangelist Simon Phipps and
Bruno Souza — known as the No. 1 Java evangelist in Brazil —
nodded in approval. However, both were quick to point out that they
are not the official word of Sun.
The conclusion: Java is nowhere open enough for the open source
community now, and BEA’s plan might just hold the key to making all parties
happy.
“Open source developers don’t trust tools that someone else has an
exclusive lock on,” Raymond said. “This is the result of bitter past
experience.”
The other big stumbling block centers on Technology Compatibility Kits
(TCK) for Sun’s Java technology specifications. Sun suggests that a complete
open source Java would allow for untrustworthy testing beds and unstable
versions of standard Java, as well as allow enterprise Java to run wild.
“Notice that IBM sells WebSphere, not Java Application Servers,” Souza
said. “It is true that we’ve seen them provide [standard widget toolkits]
outside of the JCP system. When you hear IBM telling customers that they can
ship a Java Virtual Machine without Swing, which will be faster, that’s a
problem for [write-once-read-anywhere].”
Open Java proponents suggest unleashing the language would result in a
Java that could flourish exponentially across multiple platforms.
Currently, the JSPA (Java Specification Participation Agreement) version associated with
JCP (Java Community Process) 2.5, which Apache signed, allows for open source Java-compatible
re-implementations. Behlendorf said
the Apache movement sees incompatibility as a bug to be fixed but not
necessarily regulated by legal means.
He said around the same time JCP 2.5 was being implemented, Sun promised
that Apache would not be required to pass compatibility requirements
downstream. Recently, Apache has noticed that its TCK license has a clause in
it that doesn’t work with the open source definition, meaning that code
created in open source at Apache can’t be redistributed without testing
against and passing the TCK.
“We are still discussing the issue and still believe that, through
discussion, we’ll reach an amicable solution,” Behlendorf told
internetnews.com. “We feel close. We hear encouraging things. This is
an issue for Geronimo. When Geronimo is ready for final testing and
certification, which should be a matter of a few months, that sets an
outside on resolving the issue.”
Behlendorf said Apache is now trying to convince Sun that this isn’t
about them versus the world and that Sun has nothing to fear. The group said that
seeing Java become both ubiquitous and remain a reliable platform is very encouraging.
When asked how open source and Java developers could help thaw relations
between the two sides, the panel suggested downloading the free
software/Open Source Software version of Java and use it. Then contribute
to enhance it.
“Programmers join libraries together these days, so virtual machines are
sort of irrelevant,” Phipps said. “There is still time to work out how to
get Java open.”
