Technology

Java Becomes Open Source!

Today at about 3pm. Stockholm time Java will be officially released as open source. Java is the one most talked about and popular programming languages ever. There are about 4.5 million developers using the Java programming language in the world today.

Suns release supports Java Based Businesses

Suns future plans are to have all of the companies program source code and any java related software to be released as open source. Today parts of the standard code and the mobil device versions are being released. The licensing will come a piece at a time beginning largely in the summer of 2007 when the release of Java 6 and 7 is planned.

Ten more years of Java?

Java has been given a safety net for the future. Now anyone can develop variations or continuations on the Java programming source. Though the name "Java" is protected and any new releases using the java name will have to be approved by Sun.

The first full release as open source will include Java SE 7. This is the client development environment which will be released next year. For now the Java 5 SE version will be converted to open source licensing.

Renewed confidence and interest in Java

Of late Java has been weak in gaining more momentum in the business world and developers have been complaining consistantly about Javas failings as a programming language. Javas problem in breaking into the lower levels of small business web development now held by PHP may soon be solved. This is perhaps the reason that Sun has chosen to release Java under the very controversial GPL. By doing this they have created a milestone in internet and IT history. The open source community has shown previously that it can come up with solutions for many nagging problems once software is distributed under the GPL. The move to open source Netscape and form the Mozilla project is a testament to this.

The enterprise business world is might be in a bit of a turmoil over this event. Many will be rushing to re-think and re-plan with Java in mind rather than other technologies like Microsofts .NET. A mad rush to learn Java and use it within many open source projects can be expected. This renewed interest in java will extended its life and possibly bring about new and unexpected innovations in performance and design.

The GPL brings up questions

The fact that Java is now open source and under GPL licensing may bring up questions of forking the source. Who better to fork than Microsoft? Does the new GPL licensing for Java mean that Microsoft will think about resurrecting their old JVM and modernize it to the .NET framework? Or will they just remain quiet. Microsofts recent acquisitions do show that they are very concerned with the popularity of open source. But is this news enough for them to see Java as a renewed threat?

GPL will bring economic changes

During the java applet heydays many companies lived off of closed source code. Many of those companies still exist and thrive to this day. They do well because open source Java software seemed to dry up after java applets became old hat. Will the GPL bring economic frustration to these companies? Most of them are small niche businesses that can not put up much of a fight against an onslaught of open source development of counterparts to their propietory code base. Or will these companies thrive on being forced into competition with the GPL software market? One thing is for sure someone is going to benefit from being able to have a custom Java JVM as a default on a Linux webserver package without any extra licensing costs. Maybe the problems using the JVM in shared hosting will finally be solved.

Egads! The possibility of web browsers that have a lightweight built in JVM may bring back java applets to web development! This would mean more competition for AJAX and Flash technology. If the use of applets on web pages catches on again. Nowadays with PC's gaining more and more power this is a very high possiblity. Distribution of software dependant on the JDK will become easier and might further increase the popularity of web oriented software based on the Java programming language. Java may well become the latest addition to the Web 2.0 trends and technology.

Sun is gaining face

Sun lost billions in the dot.com bubble and now looks to the ever growing popularity of open source as a chance of regaining some of the traction and financial security lost during the stock market collapse of the year 2000. The hand held device industry is in explosive growth and Java is on about 4 billion of those devices. Open sourcing Java will probably ensure that Java continues to be used in the near future thus countering Microsofts efforts to make a major break-through into the hand held devices market share.

Distribution of programming packages with Linux has spelled success for open source GPL software such as Apache, MySQL, PostGreSQL and PHP. Now that Java is open source there very well may be hundreds of Linux distributions that will include Java by default. Sun is already working with Unbuntu to get it certified for use on Suns servers. Java's cross-platform capablilities has always made it the popular choice with the Linux desktop software development world. Now that Javas source code is open source it may gain a permanent place in the heart of the open source community.

Happy Publishing!

Tags: Java

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