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Java Should Be Open-Source, Creator Says
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June 16, 2003 (Computerworld) -- SAN FRANCISCO -- If pressed to vote yea or nay, the "father of Java" said last week that he would cast his ballot in favor of making his creation more open-source, even though he recognizes that some of his Sun Microsystems Inc. colleagues make strong counterarguments.
During an interview at the JavaOne conference here, James Gosling, the Sun vice president who unleashed the programming language eight years ago, said he thinks Java has reached the point where market pressure would ensure that no "bully" could succeed in introducing incompatible technology that could fracture a developer community that has grown to value Java's consistency and interoperability.
"My personal feeling is that we're over the edge, but I also feel a little nervous about that," Gosling said. "There are still all kinds of opportunities for mayhem."
Not Ready for Leap
One prominent executive who isn't ready to take the leap that Gosling favors is Jonathan Schwartz, executive vice president of software at Sun. He said the problem with open-source is the "tyranny of the volume leader."
"If Java was open-source, Microsoft could take it, deliver it as they saw fit and drive a definition of Java that was divergent from the one that the community wanted to be compatible," he said. "And to the victor would go the spoils of that nefarious action."
Sun formally established the Java Community Process (JCP) in 1998 to develop and revise Java technology, and it now claims that more than 650 members participate. Under the JCP, intellectual property is protected by a license that requires anyone using a Java spec to demonstrate compatibility with the technology's reference implementation.
Even though Sun has worked to make its standardization process more open -- and, along with JCP members, to allow for more technologies to be made available under an open-source licensing and development model -- it has yet to make core elements of Java open-source, Gosling said.
Sun's lawsuit claiming that Microsoft Corp. violated its contract by trying to introduce a version of Java that was incompatible with its specifications has made some colleagues particularly sensitive to the open-source issue, Gosling said. He added that there are still enough differences of opinion at Sun, which tends to be a consensus-driven company, that he can't predict when or if Java will be made open-source.
"There are days when I feel like it's going to be tomorrow. There are days when I feel like it's going to be never," Gosling said.
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