Screaming Penguin - Source Does Matter

Big news recently is that IBM sent a letter to Sun urging them to release Java as open source. To let go of it as it were. ESR did the same a bit earlier, but his rantings are sometimes eloquent and sometimes bizarre, the weight and clout of IBM being something to really take notice of.

The "open letter" came as a result of a series of such public communications between IBM and Sun. In this case Sun shot first and one of their execs asked IBM to give its Java implementation to the open source community at EclipseCon. So an IBM exec took the opportunity to fire back and has asked that Sun release core parts of Java itself as open source.

Rod Smith, IBM vice-president of emerging technologies sent this letter to Sun technology evangelist Simon Phipps (whom is the person that made the IBM implementation suggestion at EclipseCon).

"Here is the offer: IBM would like to work with Sun on an independent project to open source Java," he wrote in a letter e-mailed to Rob Gingell, Sun's chief engineer. "IBM is ready to provide technical resources and code for the open source Java implementation while Sun provides the open source community with Sun materials, including Java specifications, tests and code."

Well it now appears that Sun is responding. A meeting has been scheduled for today in which the dialogue can begin. Not sure if this is just a stunt to look responsive or an actual response, but its something. For more see the linked articles.   IBM, Sun meeting to discuss open source Java: NewsForge