"It has been given away freely for so long, and it has worked its way into so many places, that it should belong to the community. And if anyone figures out how to make it better, they should just bloody well give that discovery back," Bray wrote in an ebullient blog posting, titled "Java Is Free."
Solution provider Mainsoft, a San Jose, Calif.-based software and services firm that helps customers migrate .Net systems to Linux and Java, sees open-source Java as a big boon for its business.
"Our customers are going to see the Linux platform and Java being even more aligned. Java can become an integrated part of Linux now that they're under the same license," said Yaacov Cohen, CEO of Mainsoft.
Mainsoft previously tried to negotiate with Sun for a JVM license but gave up after finding the legal and bureaucratic process too cumbersome. Cohen is pleased that Mainsoft will get another crack at working on the JVM, which Mainsoft would like to adapt for cross-platform use.
"The GPL is very clear about how you do these things, how you can access the source code and how you can contribute. Now it's easy," Cohen said.
Though most of the Java community cheered Sun's GPL move, the decision didn't thrill everyone. After years of griping about Sun's proprietary hold on Java, IBM continued to grouse about Sun's open-source choices and released a statement chiding Sun for not going the Apache route for Java's licensing and ownership.
"In general, we are pleased about Sun's announcement that they intend to open-source Java and are very supportive of the move," said Rod Smith, vice president of emerging Internet technologies at IBM, in a statement. "IBM supports all the OSI-approved open-source licenses. Having said that, there already is an important existing open-source effort working with Sun to create a Java-compatible implementation of Java SE in the Apache Foundation, namely the Harmony project."
Harmony, recently promoted out of Apache's incubator to become a top-level project, aims to create a compatible, independent implementation of Java Standard Edition 5. Harmony's overseers say they expect to continue their work, with their open-source project paralleling Sun's but meeting the needs of a different audience. Unlike the GPL, Harmony's license -- Apache v2 -- allows derivative works to remain proprietary.
"The more open-source Java, the better," said Harmony project chair Geir Magnusson. "I think the differences are clear, and what I think will happen is that people who were sitting on the fence will now make decisions about which open-source Java project to build on. I think we're going to get our fair share of committers, too."
