Sun Microsystems makes Java open-source

Today Sun Microsystems announced, that the Java platform is to become open-source. The source code of the Java environment will be opened up for developers under the GNU public License; the same license as used for the Operating System Linux.

This move from Sun Microsystems is in line with other products that have been freely available to the market, such as their Operating System Solaris and donated the source to the OpenOffice development team.

If I look at my own surroundings this move from Sun Microsystems was long anticipated. One of the main complaints about Java (other than the ‘sluggishness’) was the fact that it, unlike C/C++ was closed source and not open for introspection.

Of course it is still speculating what will happen now, but this move can only be good for the language. I think that making Java open source might jump-start the platform for more innovation as more developers are able to develop on the Java platform itself. I can only hope that as a result Java will grow faster as a language and as as platform than it has up to date.

I can only applaud Sun Microsystems for this bold step. I hope that Java and the Java community will soon be able to benefit from it.