Oracle sticks to Sun's open source strategy for Java
h-online.com
h-online.com
What Oracle can do is to split Java and make the JDK 7 implementation proprietary and incompatible with OpenJDK. They can kill Java, if they are dumb enough.
They could change the licensing on future versions of OpenJDK. Perhaps free for academic and non-commercial use only. And then attempt to monetize the JDK for commercial development.
I'm not saying it's likely to happen, just that it could happen, and it's these kinds of worries that are making Java developers uncomfortable. I should know, I'm one of them.
It would be in Oracle's best interest, and in the best interest of Java developers, if they make their position on the JDK absolutely crystal clear. And soon.
It sounds like they might do that at JavaOne, but I fear they won't communicate their plans with the kind of crystal clarity I would like, whether intentionally or unintentionally.
Possibly, but they couldn't change the license of the current version. Relicensing it under more restrictive terms would only prompt an immediate fork of the current codebase and focus developer attention on duplicating features of whatever Oracle decides to launch.
Larry makes some enemies, from time to time, but, in this case, I can't see a good reason for him to do it.
In summary: Paragraph one points to a blog post <http://blogs.oracle.com/henrik/2010/09/oracle_and_openjdk.ht...; that describes that Oracle will continue with Java 'business as usual'. (aside: I think HN should link to that blog directly). Paragraph two gives a tiny bit more info. Paragraph three give some background info that most HN readers probably already know.
For me, the main open question is whether we should be happy or sad that Oracle promises to "work with the OpenJDK code base and the OpenJDK community like Sun did"?