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Java Everywhere
Sun CEO Scott McNealy underscores Sun's contributions to the Java and open source communities.
by Lee Sherman
JavaOne, June 29, 2004
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Sun CEO Scott McNealy talks about aligning the Java and .NET communities.
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Sun Microsystems Chairman and CEO Scott McNealy used his Tuesday morning JavaOne keynote to assure the Java community that his company's stewardship of Java was rock solid in the face of 12 straight quarters of declining revenues, publicize the recent accord with former foe Microsoft, and address ongoing criticism over the company's seeming inability to monetize its Java technology. With Microsoft at least temporarily on Sun's good side, thanks in part to a $2.4 billion investment in Sun, McNealy turned his fire hose on IBM and Red Hat. He urged IBM to donate more of its intellectual property to the open source community, while asking Red Hat to join the Java Community Process (JCP).
He began with a pat on the back, citing Java's market penetration and the widespread growth and momentum of the Java community. "Everyone with a biological heartbeat is now programming in Java and everything is getting connected," he said. According to Sun, there are 4 million Java programmers, and the community is growing at the rate of 30 percent a year. Java is now running on everything from smart cards to the Mars Rover.
Going over Sun's long history of giving back to the developer community and a relationship with open source software that began when the company formed and based its entire product line on BSD Unix, McNealy put his money where his mouth was by making good on the previous day's promise by COO Jonathan Schwartz and open sourcing Project Looking Glass.
McNealy also debuted a new subscription model for Java developers. New members who sign up for a three-year Java Studio Enterprise software subscription at $1,499 per year will receive a Sun AMD Opteron processor-based workstation. Sun is auctioning off 12 of these subscriptions on eBay. Bidding starts at one penny.
On Microsoft, McNealy said there are only two developer communities left on the planet, the Java community and the .NET community, insisting it is critical the two organizations put aside their differences for the good of developers. "We really are partners; it's a strange and different thing." The alliance with Microsoft comes in the form of a 10-year collaboration agreement, the details of which are still a bit hazy. But McNealy did mention that it will come in two phases: The first is to solve the single sign-on issue, in which it will be necessary to get the Sun-backed Liberty Alliance initiative to interoperate with Microsoft's Passport. The second, and potentially much more difficult nut to crack, will be .NET and Java Web services integration.
McNealy presented his report card on the JCP, in which he chided two companies, Microsoft and Red Hat, for their lack of participation. "I think the JCP represents the most successful community development in the history of technology. The one place I would give us less than perfect marks is in class participation. We have two delinquents," he said. "I encourage both of these organizations to come to class and participate. One has a lot to contribute, and the other should just show up."
As usual, McNealy used the session to "rant and rave," ending with a couple "where's the outrage?" statements of his own. First he called on developers to write to their representatives in Congress to stop them from eliminating stock options for employees, a key means of attracting top programming talent for U.S. corporations. Next, he wondered "where's the outrage on viruses?" noting that Java had solved that problem long ago.
About the Author
Lee Sherman is a contributing writer to Java Pro.
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