* Oliver Jones <oliver(a)deeper.co.nz> [2004-06-30 06:46]:
Yes, because anyone can get involved. Not everyone would be able to get involved with Sun's Officially Blessed Version Of Java.
No everyone can get involved in Python or Perl. There are a key set of developers clustered around those languages that do 90% of the work. Open Source projects are usually meritocracies. Do the work, submit the patch and as long as it is "good enough" to please the core team it might get included.
Well that is what getting involved means to me. And if you do enough accepted work, you're likely to eventually /become part/ of the core team. That is how it works with the Perl, Python, and Ruby, anyway.
Take MySQL for example. That has to be one of the more popular "open source" products that has near zero community inclusion in the development process.
Of course; the MySQL version from MySQL AB must remain "intellectual property" of MySQL AB for the company to be able to sell it to commercial customers. MySQL could still be forked, should MySQL AB ever become unruly. That's how free software protects investments. User or not, you do have control.
The whole "open source development methodology" is rather over blown if you ask me. The are many benefits to open source. Few of them center around the the development methodology IMO.
It depends on the project. For the large ones you're mentioning, the methodology certainly *is* advantageous. Anyway -- As far as Sun is concerned: are you saying...
I don't buy this. Netscape went under -- Navigator did not. I expect something similar to happen, should Sun sink.
As I said in my email. _Only_ because they open sourced it before they got eat by AOL and eventually dismembered. I don't want this to happen to Sun before Java is set free like Navigator was.
... they may survive if they free Java...
My own opinion is that Java should be free ( != open source ) because that would be good for the language. There are many companies with vast investments in the technology, so there are clearly forces with a interest in the language's progress.
Sun needs to let Java go because if it doesn't Java will die with Sun. Sun is a dead company.
...or not? That's what irks me about your attempt at arguing.. you're making contradicting points and unrelated points. In either case, I don't see Java being tied to Sun's fate very tightly. Whatever happens to Sun, there's too much money behind Java for it to just vanish from the face of Earth.
My only hope is that if Sun doesn't see the light when the do finally go down the tubes (they are already loosing money faster than they can make it) that IBM will buy them and open source Java for us.
Maybe. This scenario sounds somewhat unlikely to me, but certainly the rights to Java will change hands in time. Regards, -- Aristotle "If you can't laugh at yourself, you don't take life seriously enough."