Software Developers are a tough audience. Why, I’d be willing to bet that even the likes of Jerry Seinfeld would tuck tail and take off from a roomful of programmers.
Take Java, for example. For years, Sun has been kicked around for not open sourcing Java (see www.catb.org/~esr/writings/let-java-go.html). So when Sun’s Rich Green made a public commitment to open source Java, you’d think the griping would pause for a second or two. And it did—for a second or two. At issue was that Green didn’t hand over the Java source code Johnny-on-the-spot, instead promising to do so in the future. “It is not a question of ‘whether,’” he said, “but it is a question of ‘how.’” So the announcement was really an announcement of an upcoming announcement.
I can live with that, but I’m more patient than, say, Richard Stallman, who saw Sun’s contribution to the free software/open-source community as “absolutely nothing” (www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=06/05/24/1154233). Well, Sun has open sourced Solaris, its Java Studio Creator and NetBeans Enterprise Pack tools, Java System Portal Server, BPEL Engine (from Java CAPS), a JMS-based message queue, and its Web Services Interoperability Technology (WSIT). Open Source Java will come, and Green and CEO Jonathan Schwartz will figure out how to make that happen.
Read more at: http://www.ddj.com/dept/architect/189401981