So, there was another “should Sun free
Java?” debate, this time at OSCon. Once again, as far as I can
tell, no one actually working on a free Java implementation was
actually invited. Sigh. I tried to get Red Hat to send me, but
getting that to happen is like pushing peas uphill.

Reading the summary, it sounds like all the familiar arguments on
both sides. Ho hum.

Here’s a somewhat
interesting, but flawed anti-freeing-Java post. I’ve got some
replies to it; quotes in italics are his:

• Well, you can already download the source and fix a bug if you
  want to. You can even submit the fix to Sun. Yeah, that’s true.
  Of course, you can’t actually do anything else with that fix of yours;
  the license doesn’t come close to meeting the OSD. And, now you’re
  tainted by Sun’s obnoxious license, so you can’t help out on a free
  Java implementation. Plus, in practice we’ve seen that Sun is not
  always very good about even properly understanding bug reports, let
  alone replying to them intelligently. Critics will say that free
  software projects are also all over the map on responsiveness to bug
  reports, but high-quality projects like gcc are much better than Sun
  in this regard.
• Open sourcing would mean we’d have even more people bickering
  about trivial issues. Yeah, this is a price of openness. Some
  bickering, and really on most projects this doesn’t dominate
  communications, is worth it to have real openness.
• I think that Java would be fine without Sun. It’s a language,
  carefully spec’d out, with multiple implementations from many
  organizations, some with billions of dollars. False.
  First, if Sun goes under, someone will buy up all that IP — it isn’t
  just going to float around out there. It could very well end up in
  the hands of someone who wants to kill Java. Second, the
  specifications are spotty. Some parts are really good (the JLS),
  some less good (the JVMSpec), and some aren’t really “specifications”
  but rather “programmer documentation”, which is ok but not really
  suitable for writing a replacement — the class libraries all fall
  into this category. For some libraries the situation is even worse.
  Third, as far as I’m aware, there is only one Swing implementation in
  existence anywhere, the one Sun owns. So, contrary to what he says,
  I believe IBM does not have its own complete Java implementation.
• So now we can see that opensourcing Java doesn’t solve
  anything. Sure it does. Open sourcing Java
  almost immediately puts a lot more software into Debian. That’s
  “something”. Second, it helps align the free software community as
  allies of Java against MS. Third, it might help breathe some life into
  Java on the desktop.

That was basically the same old stuff, just with different words.
At least he didn’t take the familiar and bogus approach of accusing
all free software people of being Evil Communist GPL Zealots.

Wouldn’t it be interesting if, just once, a keep-Java-closed
advocate were to actually talk to and ask questions of someone
actually involved with working on a free Java implementation? There
are lots of us out here, mostly friendly.