Of Interest: Sun Posts Java Source Code on Website (fwd)

["Richard H. Fifarek" <rfifarek@som.siu.edu>]

Subject: Of Interest: Sun Posts Java Source Code on Website


  Palo Alto, CA -- As Newsbytes reported, Sun Microsystems Inc. followed
through with its plan to release the source code to the Java programming
language, posting the details of the platform at its Web site.

  Sun is trying to push Java by making the roots of the language available
to independent developers free of charge. The company hopes that by giving
the source code to students and programmers, it will spur growth in the
number of new Java applications being developed.

  Companies marketing Java applications must still pay licensing fees. To
further protect itself, Sun is requiring all users of the source code to
sign its Community Source License which details the firm's rules around
usage of the language. In the past, anyone who wanted to gain access to the
Java source code was forced to pay sizable licensing fees to Sun.

  In a paper on the Community Source License, Sun developers Richard P.
Gabriel and William N. Joy stated that the new model creates a community of
widely available software source code just as the pure open source approach.
However, Sun claims that the agreement goes further, building a close
community by providing for compatibility among deployed versions of the
software and outlawing extensions of Java, including performance
improvements.

  "Because it is so easy for a participant to join the community and because
there is a shared commitment to the technology once participants are fully
engaged, the underlying infrastructure is spread more rapidly," the experts
write. "Because there are more development groups pushing up both the
innovation and quality, the new marketplace based on the infrastructure is
created more rapidly than it would any other way."

  Sun later goes on to admit that the new approach is a work in progress and
encourages developers to continue to suggest how to perfect the model.

  For more information visit http://www.sun.com


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