There was a recent vote on the approval of "JSR #336 - Java SE 7 Release Contents". (They also voted on Java SE 8, believe it or not.) The Executive Committee for JCP consists of Google, Apache, HP, IBM, RedHat, Eclipse, and some others. Well, Google and Apache voted NO. The rest voted YES. Both of those NO votes were not over anything technical. Apparently, everyone is pleased with the technology improvements set to be released with Java 7. This discontent is purely because of the license terms that Oracle has in place. Without surprise, the license is not quite open source friendly, and most interpret the terms as implying that some hefty fees might lie ahead for those that want to port Java technology over to their own platforms. I think the thing that is much more telling of Oracle's mentality is that Oracle fully intends to move forward with the release of Java SE 7, even if the entire JCP does not approve of it. (See Google's comments from the JCP meeting of 10/4/2010, found on the JCP web site.) So, what really is the point of the Java Community Process? Seriously?
This is just the way it is now. Oracle has done absolutely nothing wrong. Java is now Oracle's baby. It is their intellectual property.
You are going to see a strong divide rise up in the Java world this coming year. It will divide those that are pro open-source, and those that simply don't care to consider what their software development world would be like if open source did not pave the way to better languages and development platforms. I don't think that anyone is anti-open-source. They just are not thinking.
The vote that really surprised me was the vote from the Eclipse Foundation -- they voted YES. Their entire existence is because of the open source community. They, as with most of the Executive Committee members, voiced concern with Oracle's licensing terms with the Technology Compatibility Kit (TCK), but felt that more would be lost in the development community if it was not approved. (Apparently, this approval is behind schedule, thanks in part to this dispute.)
My feeling is that this may spell a drawn out path of a general move away from Java. However, I doubt it'll be anything significant for a long time. Let's face it -- Java is huge in industry. It is not going to disappear anytime soon. However, I do not think it will dominate as much as it has. You will see a rise of some other open languages that are just as (potentially) capable as Java. Other potential languages will follow the similar open source path -- first, we'll continue to see a slow departure away from Java in the colleges (which is happening already for a variety of reasons) and to better choices for academic purposes. Those students will bring their new skills in [insert-new-potential-language-here] into the workforce, and we'll see a continuing slow decline of Java in industry.
I wonder if Oracle will learn any lessons that Microsoft had to go through in the late 90's - early 2000's? Does anyone remember how often MS had to get their hand slapped for some of their commercial practices?
Just my opinion... I can take Oracle's side in this as well. After all, there is something to be said for having 100% control over your own intellectual property.
See http://www.jcp.org for more information.
1 comment:
I should think the answer to why Eclipse voted the way they did would be obvious. The Eclipse Foundation is nothing like the ASF. See Eclipse Membershp Benefits and Strategic Members.
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