Re: RFC: Spin Java petition

[Chris Gray]

I was actually contemplating the idea of an open letter to Arnold Gosling. It 
wouldn't have looked like this petition though, much more like what Brian is 
saying. Spinning off Java into a business unit is just irrelevant (isn't that 
what javasoft.com was supposed to be anyway).

I think the message that needs to be got across is that the status of Sun's 
Java source code is not the real issue - there are open-source alternatives 
already. What needs to be opened up is the testing and licensing issue, so 
that open source (and other independent) implementations can compete fairly 
with Sun licensees and JCP sycophants.

Brian is probably right that the IP probably has a high book value, based on 
the amount of money that Sun has poured into it over the years. Well, at a 
certain moment they're going to have to reassess that value, and admit to 
themselves that actually it ain't worth all that much. A lot of doing 
business is about knowing when to write off a loss.

Maybe we could thrash something out here and make a Statement in Saarbruecken?

Up the revolution!

Chris

On Sunday 05 October 2003 06:19, Brian Jones wrote:
> Arnaud Vandyck <address@hidden> writes:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I've just read an article on Newsforge:
> > http://newsforge.com/newsforge/03/10/02/1240243.shtml?tid=3
> >
> > And in a comment, I saw this reference:
> > http://www.petitiononline.com/spinjava/petition.html
> >
> > I copy the text below. I did not sign the petition right now because I'd
> > like to have your comments before doing it (or not!) ;)
>
> Sun has a lot of reorganization to do in order to stop bleeding cash
> each quarter.  I don't really care about this petition because what
> would really useful is for Sun to 'let go' of Java by releasing the
> core development kit/runtime under a free software license as defined
> by the FSF; hopefully something gcj could use.
>
> They could actually just release under SCSL and BSD for example,
> continue to drive the platform from industry perspective via JCP and
> perhaps lighten up the resources devoted to the core platform.  But
> don't hold your breath, the IP is probably considered too valuable.
>
> Brian

-- 
Chris Gray                                /k/ Embedded Java Solutions
Embedded & Mobile Java, OSGi              http://www.kiffer.be/k/
address@hidden                      +32 477 599 703