Not a bash, just the facts

[Daniel Carrera]

Ewan Mac Mahon wrote:
> It works OK for the other Free languages like perl, python, ruby, and
> indeed the gcc implementation of C/C++.

Microsoft doesn't feel threatened by any of those.

Also, the first three don't have the position that Java has in the 
market. You don't use Perl for very large mission-critical programs that 
must work just as well in 5 years. And Python and Ruby are largely unknown.

Your gcc example is flawed. The C specification is not GPL. GCC is to C 
what Kaffe is to Java. GCC is just a FOSS compiler that tries to adhere 
to the C spec just like Kaffe is a FOSS compiler that tries to adhere to 
the Java spec.

BTW, the reason why the gcc example was flawed by the first ones weren't 
is that Perl, Python and Ruby aren't specs. Their implementations are 
the spec, so you can say that the spec is forkable. And forkability is 
what Sun wants to avoid with Java. Java is not forkable in the same way 
that C is not forkable.

> No single distribution ships a weirdly broken implementation of any of
> these languages[1]

But Microsoft might. It is not FOSS that Sun is afraid of regarding Java.

> If someone comes up with an
> extension that actually seems useful then everyone can adopt it;

FOSS doesn't work that way. For example, Ubuntu and Debian are not 
binary compatible.

Cheers,
Daniel.
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