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IBM calls Sun's bluff over open source

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CIOL Bureau
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BANGALORE: IBM has called Sun's bluff over open source, responding to a challenge laid down by Simon Phipps (Sun's Chief Technology Evangelist), at EclipseCon 2004, during which he asked, "Why hasn't IBM given its implementation of Java to the open source community," by offering to work with Sun to open source Java?


To begin with, the simple answer to Phipps' question, "Why hasn't IBM open sourced it's Java implementation" is "because the agreements it has with Sun prevent it from doing so". In the same speech, Phipps underlined Sun's misunderstanding of open source by making the claim that Java is already open sourced. It would seem that Sun is confused. Java may be many things, but "open sourced".


Gary Barnett, Research Director, Ovum says, "we would join IBM, and others, in calling on Sun to open source Java. Not only would the Java community benefit, but we believe that Sun would too. Sun's control of Java has always been tenuous given the need to include so many partners in its development to ensure that Java was not seen as a proprietary technology of Sun’s. The most compelling reason we see for placing Java in the public domain is Sun's almost unique ability to combine enormous expertise in software development with an apparent inability to make money out of it. Sun has spent a fortune on Java and has received far less in return - it's time to move on".


Sourced from Ovum

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