Re: RFC: Spin Java petition

[Dalibor Topic]

Hi Chris,

Chris Gray wrote:
> I was actually contemplating the idea of an open letter to Arnold Gosling. It 
> wouldn't have looked like this petition though, much more like what Brian is 
> saying. Spinning off Java into a business unit is just irrelevant (isn't that 
> what javasoft.com was supposed to be anyway).

Yep, the future of Sun's business is a matter of discussion for their 
shareholders. Even if Sun rolls over and dies tomorrow, Java as a 
language, set of APIs, and a VM is here to stay with us for a while. In 
any case, Classpath won;t run out of things to implement that soon. ;)

> I think the message that needs to be got across is that the status of Sun's 
> Java source code is not the real issue - there are open-source alternatives 
> already. What needs to be opened up is the testing and licensing issue, so 
> that open source (and other independent) implementations can compete fairly 
> with Sun licensees and JCP sycophants.

Exactly. That's the most valuable thing Sun could do to help the free 
java community, and make sure Java continues to prosper even if sun goes 
down.

cheers,
dalibor topic