Not a bash, just the facts

[Alan McKinnon]

On Saturday 25 March 2006 22:47, Kenneth P. Turvey wrote:
> On Sat, 25 Mar 2006 18:23:03 +0200, Alan McKinnon wrote:
>
> [Snip]
>
> > The real solution here is to have Sun agree to GPL Java. It's not
> > like they will lose anything by doing that. Can you realistically
> > see anyone knocking Sun off the top spot re Java?
>
> I think we are really minimizing what Sun has to lose.  Microsoft
> already tried the "embrace and extend" nonsense with Java.  Why
> would anyone think it wouldn't happen again with a GPL'd Java?

Sorry, I should have been clearer. Java has a standards track which 
controls the language. Java has a standards track and I can't see any 
current Java vendor extending the language. No-one does it with C/C++ 
either. And I doubt Microsoft will ever again touch Java, even with a 
bargepole. We all know that C# is what they were trying to do with 
Java way back then, can you even imagine Bill backtracking on C#? 

So: GPL the compiler and VM software, but not the language

-- 
Alan McKinnon
alan at linuxholdings dot co dot za
+27 82, double three seven, one nine three five