IBM to open source a Java Runtime environment?

[Matt Zimmerman]

On Sat, Nov 27, 2004 at 11:45:29AM -0800, Daniel Robitaille wrote:

> http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=1817&e=1&u=/zd/20041126/tc_zd/139971&sid=96120751
> 
> "especially when IBM's intention to release a fully open-source JRE
> (Java Runtime Environment) and class libraries within the next year or
> so is about the worst-kept secret in the industry. IBM executives
> scarcely even bother to deny this any more," Raymond wrote."
> 
> 
> Obviously I'm not an industry insider since It's the first I have heard of it :)

This is the first I've heard of it, but I don't follow Java happenings very
closely these days.

This would be fantistic news, especially for Ubuntu, if true.

> Should try to promote more the IBM's jre instead of Sun's  jre for
> Ubuntu on the mailing list when users ask about Java?  It could be
> good on the long run as a way to promote a soon-to-be-open option. And
> in a few tests I have done on my x86 machine the IBM java plugin
> visually gives better results (for the fonts) than the Sun Java plugin
> in Firefox.

IBM's proprietary JRE is already in many ways superior to Sun's; it's the
system of choice for the server-side Java developers I know.

-- 
 - mdz