Rick Ross

Read "No Sun Is An Island" - also by Rick Ross I can neither endorse nor denounce the Sun/Microsoft settlement at this point. Those of us on the outside have no access to the particulars of the settlement and have no way to know whether Sun has sold us out. In truth, precious little of the corporate messaging has specifically referenced Java. It would be nice to paint a positive picture, but experience has proven that we shouldn't be too quick to believe what corporations convey in their highly managed dog-and-pony shows. They made a similar set of happy announcements when Microsoft originally signed on as a Java licensee. Look how many years it took before we got to see the bad faith that finally surfaced in the courtroom evidence. We should be smart enough to learn from history that things may not ultimately be as happy as the spin doctors want us to believe they ... (more)

Move Ahead and Don't Look Back

I don't need a California court to tell me that Microsoft has breached their commitment to Java. Their attacks on Java portability, its very heart and soul, are blatant and painfully obvious. It's time to move on, and I think the solution to the Microsoft problem is simple. Let's just make Microsoft irrelevant. In fact, let's watch while Microsoft makes itself irrelevant to the entire Java developer community. They have no intention of supporting us, so let's not waste any more precious time and energy trying to persuade them to. Microsoft walked away from their partnership with... (more)

"No Sun Is An Island," Says Javalobby Founder

Read Eric Raymond's Open Letter to Scott McNealy: "Let Java Go" Read "Letting Java Go" - James Gosling in 2003 on Open-Sourcing Java As if driven by the cycles of the moon, it seems like the Java community gets a monthly visit from that special topic that divides and angers us more than any other: the question of whether Sun should "open source" Java? Most recently a top open source advocate named Eric Raymond (author of  The Cathedral And The Bazaar) published an open letter to Sun urging them to "Let Java Go." I have huge respect for the achievements of the open source community,... (more)

MS Killed Java: Time for Justice - A Commentary on Sun's Injunction Request Against Microsoft

(August 30, 2002) - It's interesting to discuss this on the day that Michael Skakel, the "Kennedy cousin", is sentenced to 20 years to life for killing a woman 25 years ago. Someone mentioned to me that it seems a harsh punishment for something that happened so long ago, and I could only reply, "She's still dead." Five years ago, almost to the day, Microsoft shipped IE4 with a JVM that was intentionally engineered to provide leverage to corrupt and pollute Java compatibility standards. The US District Court clearly found Microsoft guilty of illegal anticompetitive behavior with r... (more)

Oracle Targets Top Spot With New Oracle9iAS and Jdeveloper

J2EE AND WEB SERVICES BOTH FEATURE HIGH ON THE AGENDA AS ORACLE RE-ENTERS DEVELOPER TOOLS SPACE WITH A BANG I returned just yesterday from a fantastic trip to San Francisco for Oracle's OpenWorld conference. It wasn't clear what to expect when I accepted Oracle's invitation to give a presentation, but I was delighted to find the show had a high-energy crowd that was very tuned in to Java, especially J2EE and Web services. The whole show was great, but the most interesting and important items came from Oracle, itself - Oracle9i Application Server Release 2 and Oracle9i JDeveloper. ... (more)