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Java and Open Source: All you need to read

Eric Sink explains Sun's impending decision to Open Source Java, like only Eric can...
"Now I have to figure out why I don't care.

Actually, I do care. In fact, I'm angry. Java had so much potential, and most of its opportunities are lost. Java today is like what Tiger Woods would have been if his Dad had made him live at home until he was forty...."

Somebody once said that the most important things you can give a child are roots and wings...

Read the whole story over at his blog.

Comments

  1. Fuzzy - not just a name, a way of life.10:22 pm

    Gordo, I think you need to get some new heros. Eric Sink is stuck in lala land if he thinks its [java's] opportunities are lost. It is *the* enterprise development language. End of story.

    Fuzzy

    ReplyDelete
  2. Gordon8:31 am

    I know java is hugely popular in the enterprise space - particularly in Europe - It's certainly not going to go away anytime soon.

    But When Eric says that it's opportunitues are lost, I assume he meant that it's too little, too late. If Java had been made open source pre .NET ,it certainly had the potential to be the One language to rule them All. (just look how much C# 'borrowed' from java...)

    As Keith Casey commented:

    "...You'd have a codebase driven by actual use instead of boards and marketing dollars... and hundreds of the smartest and sharpest would not have jumped to other languages."

    Nowadays, that simply isn't going to happen.

    I don't think that by any means Java is doomed - just that Sun's insistence on playing it so close to it's chest has hurt it.

    It's kind of like a Mac zealot saying "Yeah, well, we OWN the desktop publishing space.."

    (And as far as Heros go, Eric is more of a software writing hero for me than a technology commentary hero. You have to agree, it's a pretty well written post...)

    ReplyDelete

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