Maria Winslow's Practical Open Source Blog

There is a lot of open source activity currently surrounding Java, from JBoss and Geronimo (open source app servers) to MyFaces (an open source web application framework - think Struts but better) to Spring (an open source application framework).

And now Harmony, an open source Java implementation, is in incubator status at the Apache Software Foundation. IBM and Intel have both made contributions toward the project.

The Harmony project mission (from the website):

-  Create a compatible, independent implementation of J2SE 5 under the Apache License v2

- Create a community-developed modular runtime (VM and class library) architecture to allow independent implementations to share runtime components, and allow independent innovation in runtime components

But do we really need open source Java? Jeff Genender, a core developer on the Geronimo project and an open source practice leader with Virtuas, thinks so. "I think it's important since at this stage, we need to literally rewrite components of J2EE and Java so that other projects can use them appropriately in other software. This is true for Geronimo, and it's one of the reasons Harmony was started."
 
Genender points out that it's also an issue of efficiency. "If Java was truly open source, then these projects could spend their resources on building onto Java instead of reinventing the wheel to get around licensing issues."

He makes a good point. Is Sun wasting great developer talent by keeping Java closed despite developer insistence on openness? And if Harmony is successful, will Sun matter anymore?

I'll be keeping tabs on developments in the world of open source Java over the next few weeks. Stay tuned for my analysis.

Posted Wed, 11/30/05, 2:15 PM EST

tags: java  geronimo  open  spring  sun  myfaces  source  harmony