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Sun wins bid to keep Java from splitting in two
National Committee for Information Technology Standardization turns down request to oversee realtime Java standards
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Sun officials say the Community Source licensing model allows companies to modify and share Java source code without intervention from Sun. Sun also is allowing third parties to work on expert committees charged with developing Java specifications for certain areas such as realtime applications. Interested companies and developers have another week to sign up to become members of the expert groups. An outside consulting firm will check the qualifications of interested companies and come up with a final list of members.
Several members of the Working Group have been impressed by Sun's newfound openness and have signed up to be considered for the realtime expert group.
"Sun is being a lot more flexible; I and other companies here, have liked what we've heard," said Bruce Khavar, president of Cyberonix Inc., a member of the Working Group based in Berkeley, CA.
Khavar said he was one of several Working Group members signing up for Sun's realtime expert group. "It's not as if we're Roman gladiators going at each others' throats here -- we're all trying to solve the same basic problems and agree on almost all of the requirements" for realtime Java specs, he said.
But questions remain. Sun's willingness to "augment" Java to allow for more control over realtime processes doesn't go far enough for some types of applications, according to Kelvin Nilsen, chief technology officer for Newmonics Inc. and a member of the Working Group. Newmonics has its own version of the Java virtual machine.
Other companies feel caught in a fight among giants. Some developers involved in the San Diego discussion privately say they believe HP and Microsoft may have reasons for promoting a split in Java standards. HP could use a split to differentiate its own Chai Java virtual machine implementation from other versions of the JVM, said several developers who asked to remain anonymous.
HP, on its part, has said this week that it still has questions about Sun's proposals, and has said that it joined the Working Group because Sun's process was too slow and not open enough.
Meanwhile, in two ongoing court cases, Sun and the US government have publicly accused Microsoft of trying to undermine Java's promise of cross-platform interoperability. Java is seen by many observers as a threat to Microsoft's efforts to get the Windows operating system to run on platforms ranging from PCs to consumer devices to high-end servers.
Sun is currently engaged in a trial against Microsoft, in which it alleges that Microsoft broke a contract by developing Java extensions that are incompatible with Sun's Java standards. Meanwhile, the US Department of Justice and 19 states this week rested their broad antitrust case against Microsoft, in which Sun's Gosling testified.
Microsoft has flatly denied the charges in both cases, and is now presenting its side of the case in the US antitrust trial.
But although Sun has won a few battles this week in the realtime playing field, it may have to fight another day. Some members of the Working Group may regroup and, taking into account comments form the voting members of NCITS, submit yet another proposal that the standards group take on the work of managing development realtime Java specs, outside the auspices of Sun.
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