Eric Raymond has issued a press-release (his primary occupation these days), asking Sun to open Java:
Today, the big issue is Java. Sun's insistence on continuing tight control of the Java code has damaged Sun's long-term interests by throttling acceptance of the language in the open-source community, ceding the field (and probably the future) to scripting-language competitors like Python and Perl. Once again the choice is between control and ubiquity, and despite your claim that "open source is our friend" Sun appears to be choosing control.
It's good rhetoric, because it builds one highly questionable premise on top of another, and treats both as undisputable fact
Firstly, there's the premise that there is some lack of Open Source adoption of Java. Anybody who has even the most superficial knowledge of Java will know that this is a load of rubbish. Java is buried under the weight of Open Source development it attracts. One of the things that keeps me using Java is the sheer volume of Free (beer and speech) libraries there are that make it easier to do stuff. That Java itself is not Open Source doesn't seem to have done anything to prevent it attracting a lot of people who do believe in free software.
Then there's the premise that if Java were opened, it would see significantly wider adoption from people who are now instead using Python and Perl (which are free). Which is rubbish. People who use Python and Perl are generally doing so because they prefer Python and Perl as languages, not because of any strange Free Software fetish.
Using JINI as an example of closed-source slowing Java's adoption is a bit of a joke. JINI was never adopted widely because nobody ever found any convincing application for it. Raymond, therefore, has to gloss over the fact that unlike his NeWS/X11 example, there is no Open Source alternative that was adopted in its stead.
What Raymond really sees is a lack of adoption of Java from Unix/C Open Source nerds. From Raymond's point of view, the Open Source community is centered around the Linux community: so any Open Source that isn't related to the Linux community slips under his radar. Or at least is able to be ignored for rhetorical purposes.
I really can't see Scott McNealy reading Raymond's letter and thinking "Oh God! If I open up Java, all these Unix/C nerds who don't like Java anyway, are suddenly going to change their minds! After all. So few people use Java, it needs all the help it can get."
I'm not sure if you're trying to make some joke on his middle initial, but his last name is Raymond, not Raymonds.
Otherwise, ESR seems to have lost touch with some of reality.
Ah, thanks. I fixed the spelling.
I'm confused... I thought that Java is available for truly free use. Isn't SableVM[1], jikes[2], gcj[3], and the like all free? You don't need anything from Sun as far as I know...
Anyway, you're completely right. Being free isn't why it is used so little. I don't think Java will ever recover from the slow start and bad PR ("so slow!") of the early days. Kinda sad, because it is a handy language. I greatly enjoy using it over C++ and C. I really don't think the license is what is holding things back.
Great site! Glad I stopped in.
[1] http://www.sablevm.org/
[2] http://www-124.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/jikes/
[3] http://gcc.gnu.org/java/
Opening the source transfers the exclusive power of decision-making to the public. Do I necessarily trust the public not to use my code for evil?
You may not like Mr. Raymond or his views. But you have to admit that Sun has an important role in the current situation where the java motto ought to be "write once - run nowhere": Outside the Java programmer world, you see very few installations of good JREs. It's not all Microsoft's fault.
Well said.
I am tired of this fud about making Java open. I also posted to one blog which wanted people to evaluate free jvm implementations and jre was excluded from that list.
jre is free as far as I am concerned. I can use it for free, can distribute it for free, have access to source code and extensive documentation. I don't care if I cannot change the jvm to suit my needs. I can always write code to address that without tinkering with jvm. Unless I am in that niche group of people who needs to port jvm to different platform why do I care about whether it is fully free or not?
As for a comment about installation I would recommend them to use installers like install anywhere.
Apple's "Rendezvous" (aka "zero-config networking") http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/rendezvous/ is doing some of what JINI was supposed to do -- probably "enough" of what JINI was supposed to do -- without requiring Java.
See also http://www.nettlesting.com/nettoolbox/documentation/rendezvous.shtml
>>What Raymond really sees is a lack of adoption of Java from Unix/C Open Source nerds. From Raymond’s point of view, the Open Source community is centered around the Linux community: so any Open Source that isn’t related to the Linux community slips under his radar. Or at least is able to be ignored for rhetorical purposes.<<
This hits the nail on the head.
The Linux OSS community doesn't understand the Java OSS community and vice versa.
But the reason (IMO) *does* at least partly have to do with ideology.
A significant percentage of the old-time Linux community runs Linux because they want all software in their application stack to be open source. Or at least all infrastructure code. (If you don't believe me, search the net for the history of Gnome vs. KDE as it relates to QT licensing issues.)
The JREs aren't open source any more than Microsoft's Shared Source is open source. So a significant chunk of Linux folks won't do software development based on the JREs.
The other issue is that most Linux folks prefer rich client UIs, and Java (until recently due to the rise of SWT and the Eclipse rich client platform) has failed to attract desktop application developers.
So since Java wasn't widely accepted as a desktop application platform, the Linux folks and the Java folks have pretty much kept to themselves.
But this is changing. Just look at the number of new projects that are based on SWT. Before long, I expect that most of these projects will be compiled with GCJ (at least on Linux) and be distributed using a fully open-source software stack.
This will fix both of the Linux developer community's objections to using Java as a platform.
So Eric will probably get what he wants, although I doubt that Sun will be the one who gives it to him.