Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Sun vs Microsoft - Open This, Baby!

So... Sun finally pulled the trigger and open-sourced Java. Wow. Only 6 months after Scott McNealy stepped down. From other reports I've read - the 6 month hold up was due to the legal team (140 lawyers!!) going through all 6 MILLION lines of Java source code to see who they need to get licenses from (and who to buy-off) so it would be legal for them to open-source the lot.

I must say - I didn't think I'd live to see the day Java was set free. GOOD JOB, Sun!

In fact, Sun is rumored to be looking to open-source their OpenSolaris operating system as well! Wow. Really amazing stuff.

Speaking of proprietary and never going open-source no matter what... what (if anything) should Microsoft do to counter the move?

What if they come up with a Java-like language to compete with Java?

Oops, they already did that with C#.

So... we know that there's no way they will open up THEIR operating system, nor their Office cash-cow, nor their Xbox OS, nor VB....

Hmmmmm.... I know, what about the .Net Framework? Hey, that would be a good idea. Then, people could choose to run with it and port it to other platforms (already happening with the Mono Project) and have other developers help them out.

Whadda' ya' think - will it happen? No chance in hell. Microsoft would lose control, and they wouldn't be able to "embrace and extend anything" - definitely not their business model!

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