Will Sun's Java Go Open Source?

Ritalin16 writes "CNet report that Sun Microsystems wants to send Java closer to the open-source world, yet keep it safe from harm. "Project Peabody" adds two licenses that make it easier for outsiders to see the code. But Sun stops short of embracing open-source. Sun's licensing practices for Java are closely watched. Proponents of making Java open-source argue that a different license and development process will help accelerate usage of Java, which faces ongoing competition from Web open-source scripting tools, such as PHP, and Microsoft's .Net line of tools."

Already ditched

[skomes]

I already ditched java a long time ago. After trying some .net, settled on python, who wants to write 10 lines of code, and have to pass through 2 layers of variables to open a file? Python: open(filename,r/w,0) Java: JSKALDAHSJKDHLSA; ASDJH(ASLDHJKLASH); ASJHDJAKSHDJHASD(); REALLYLONGBUFFERNAME();

Sun's covert ops

[bobdotorg]

"Project Peabody" is really the code name for Sun's secret development of The Wayback Machine to send Scott McNealy back to a time when Sun was relevant.

eightball says:

[gitana]

signs point to yes

Suns past stance on this

[Anonymous Coward]

No
No
No
No
No
No
Maybe
Haha... No

zerg

[Lord Omlette]

If it were up to me (I know it's not, so shut up ;_; ), I would put it in the public domain and pretend I wasn't the one who wrote it. Then I'd be all "Oh wow, Java's so cool, you can even download all the source code for it!"

And then I'd get featured on slashdot as "Sun's Java Went Open Source" instead of some silly speculation that Sun might make up some magical license that lets you look at the code but not do anything w/ it.

Will open sourcing Java source code mean that the language will get submitted to a standards organization like ECMA or ISO or something?

I'm looking forward to this

[NutscrapeSucks]

As soon as Java goes open source, I plan on forking it. Job 1 will be to add first class support for COM and XPCOM objects. After that's done, I'm planning on adding Delegates for event-driven programming. Good RAD-Designer support is important too.

Of course, there might be some minor incompatibities with other JVMs, and the initial releases will be Windows-only, but since Java is such a neat and productive environment to program in, I think people will overlook these issues. Anyone interested in joining this project, please contact me.

Already ditched-Typing "Briefs".

[Anonymous Coward]

If you really want to save your, er, um...typing hand? I would suggest you learn APL.

So...

[Anonymous Coward]

Do we still hate Java or what? I'm confused.

Re:Already ditched

[crummynz]

After close examination of your Java code, I think I've found the reason you were having some problems.

Write once, run somewhere

[Macrat]

Java is crossplatform. Runs on Windows 2000 AND Windows XP.

Re:Sun's covert ops

[nathanh]

"Project Peabody" is really the code name for Sun's secret development of The Wayback Machine to send Scott McNealy back to a time when Sun was relevant.

Quiet, you!

Moderation ...

[gibson_81]

Where is the "+0, RMS Clone" moderation option? =)

Depends

[turgid]

Do we still hate Java or what? I'm confused.

Not if it comes from IBM. We only hate the stuff from Sun, and we also like .NET in the form of Mono, because Miguel started that so it must be cool.

Re:off-topic-a-roony

[smittyoneeach]

One wonders if someone clever will fuse Mono, making it another front end for gcc.
Think about C# that executes faster on Linux than it does under .Net.
Think about mixing the resulting .so files.
Urrrk, I really should switch to decaf...

Sun's marketing clowns

[null etc.]

One nice thing about an open source Java is that maybe Sun's marketing clowns would have less input into the "naming" of Java.

Java 1.1 = Java
Java 1.2 = Java2
Java 1.3 = Java2 version 1.3
Java 1.4 = Java2 version 1.4
Java 1.5 = Java2 version 5?!?!?!

I mean crykies, I'm almost in fear of what Java 1.6 will be named. And prepare to move into a bomb shelter when Java 2.0 comes out.