And?

And?

Posted Aug 17, 2006 20:44 UTC (Thu) by ncm (subscriber, #165)
Parent article: Coming soon: a free Java

Does it mean anything to "open-source Java", or even to "free Java"? Java is a language, not a program. Sun has programs to compile Java to bytecodes, bytecode interpreters, libraries typical Java programs rely on, and test suites. The language definition itself might be released to an independent body responsible to the community, and the standard library definitions similarly. If they Free any of these things, those might be worth reporting, but none, alone, would constitute freeing Java itself.

Here's a prediction: the moment Sun completes freeing Java is the point at which it has become entirely irrelevant to their strategic plans. That will be the point at which anybody *still* coding Java should finally, belatedly, consider acquiring career skills not tied to the whims of a single corporation.

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