Some additional useful links :

OpenJDK project
IcedTea project
IcedTea history
Gary Benson’s Blog
Andrew Hughes’ Blog
Andrew Haley’s Blog
Lillian Angel’s Blog
Mark Wielaard’s Blog

“I wouldn’t be the first to argue that Sun missed the boat by not releasing Java under an open source license sooner. As Apache Project co-founder Brian Behlendorf said in 2006, “I think had they done it, they would have established Java further as the language of choice by so many more people.”

From my very, very minor involvement with the IcedTea project and since joining Red Hat just a few months ago I’ve seen a very different attitude towards Java. I was previously of the opinion (bear in mind I worked for Sun for almost 9 years) that Java was already essentially free and open enough – and that actually making it Open Source wouldn’t really change anything. Java had already become incredibly popular without the advantages of Open Source. But I now think Java did miss a huge opportunity by not being part of the major upstream Linux ecosystems – such Fedora and Debian.

So it almost certainly would have made a big difference 3 or 4 years ago; the question is – will it make a difference now. I’m optimistic – but admittedly slightly biased having invested a large part of the last decade in promoting Java in one way or another. Here’s why I’m optimistic.

1. Java is still young – I still talk to customers who are only just contemplating moving to Java; and I’m still pretty confident that the majority of Java developers are only now working their way through school and college.
2. The only real, mainstream alternative to Java is Microsoft’s .NET platform. And the future of that is somewhat predicated on the success of Vista and Vista isn’t looking too hot right now. OK, Ruby, PHP, Scala, Python all have their place – but  they are just languages and don’t really complete with the Java platform.
3. There’s a real opportunity for one of the Linux distros. to become *the* Java developer OS – right now I would guesss that Windows XP and OS/X account for most Java developers desktops – that just seems completely wrong to me given Microsoft’s and Apple’s disdain of Java.

I feel pretty encouraged by the reaction to our announcement last week and I wouldn’t be surprised if the next wave of innovation in Java came from the new communities who can now adopt it. I for one would love to see one of the major Linux distros like Fedora step up and become the developer OS for Java – and when I say Java; I don’t just mean the language – I mean the entire Java ecosystem.

But first – I’d like to make a point about Sun’s reaction. Opening Java was a big bold move – likely one of the biggest, boldest moves in our industry’s history. Sun has given Java the chance to truly flourish but in doing so has given up a little bit of control and a little bit of the ownership. From time to time others will play a role in advancing Java as the Fedora team and Red Hat did over the last year; and they’ll rightfully take the credit for doing so. That’s a consequence of opening Java. On the whole I was pleased with Sun’s reaction – many Sun people involved in Java actively promoted the IcedTea milestone, recognizing it as progress for the Java platform as well. It could have been different – after all Sun and Red Hat are also competitors. I think if Sun continues to encourage others to promote and advance Java – all will be good.

OK, let me address some of the questions and misconceptions :

Wow – a second Java implementation – this one is free and open source – way to go.

Actually there have always been many Java implementations – eg. Sun, BEA, IBM, Azul, HP even Microsoft had one at one point (but that’s another story). And they were always free ($0) and as of a year ago Sun’s was also Open Source. Java is a pretty open specification – you have always been able to become a licensee and implement your own Java. But that is a huge amount of work.

Who cares – Java is slow.

Too funny. But much funnier back in 1999 when it was also partially true.

OK, but this one’s going to be slow

The OpenJDK in Fedora 9 is largely (ie. 96%-99%) based on Sun’s JDK 1.6 – so it’s likely to perform about the same.

I’m worried about fragmentation – now anyone can have their own Java-like distro.

Firstly, Given the momentum behind Java – producing something that is partially Java isn’t going to be particularly interesting. Sun still protects the Java brand – if it’s called Java, it must behave like Java (ie. minimally pass the Java TCK). I still can’t imagine why anyone (ie. other Linux distros) wouldn’t just take openJDK and IceTea as their imlementation of Java.

Sun Open Sourced Java a year ago – there’s no news here

The initial OpenJDK had encumberences which meant it could not be distrubted fully in some of the more important Linux distributions like Fedora. Now it can. That is significant – we have not seen the true potetnial of Java on Linux. Now we have an implementation everyone can feel good about -  we will.

OpenJDK has been distributed with <your favourite linux> since April.

Sure – but it likely had the ‘encumberances’ – while that may be an OK situation for many – it wasn’t an OK situation for everyone.

But my XYZ app doesn’t run on this jdk

Sun’s TCK can’t guarantee that every possible current and future app. will work – as I mentioned – passing the TCK is a milestone; not the end goal. If your app doesn’t run or behave as it should then help by filling a bug.

This was only possible because a bunch of people (like Simon Phipps), inside and outside of Sun had the clarity of vision, passion and determination to actually make it happen; and in doing so increase the opportunity that Java represents for Sun and everyone else.

Don’t underestimate what courage this took. If you’re in any doubt – go tell your CxO that you want to take one of your most valuable applications; open source it and let everyone in the world benefit from your investment and hard work. Best case – you’ll get put on a medical leave of absence.

Now we just need to work on the JCP

A couple of things stand out. First – the Fedora peeps took a little bit of a risk by including Firefox 3 (beta 5) but I think it paid off – Beta 5 seems pretty solid and Firefox just keeps getting better and better. There’s no specific feature of Firefox 3 I’m excited about but there a quite a few nice little touches that make a difference – eg. the ability to open all the bookmarks in a folder  – I can now open all my work related apps with one key click – nice.

The second thing of interest is the inclusion of IcedTea – this is a completely free and open version of Sun’s OpenJDK and was developed by Red Hat. I’m personally pretty excited about Red Hat’s involvement in OpenJDK – I think we’ll see Linux in general become a much more important place for the Java platform now that it’s part of the ecosystem.