Read this Open Letter in its original version at Eric Raymond's Web site
Read a previous Open Letter from ESR published at LinuxWorld
The open-source community has been hearing reports that you have recently said of Sun Microsystem's strategy "The open-source model is our friend". We're glad to hear that, and Sun's support of OpenOffice.org certainly puts some weight behind the claim. But that support is curiously inconsistent, spotty in ways which suggests that Sun is confused in the way it thinks about and executes its open-source strategy.
That confusion is evident in another of your quotes. Many of us think you are right on when you say that "Sun [...] is less threatened by a zero-revenue model for software than just about anybody out there." We agree that the potential for you in using open-source software as a value multiplier for Sun's hardware business is huge. This wouldn't even be a novel move for Sun; your release of the NFS standards in 1984 was possibly the single most successful market-shaping maneuver in your company's history, and we'd love to help you repeat it.
But the casual equation between "open source" and "zero revenue" suggests that on another level you don't really know what you're talking about. Open source is hardly a zero-revenue model; ask Red Hat, which had a share price over triple Sun's when I just checked. Or ask IBM, which is using Linux as a lever to build a huge systems-integration business in markets like financial services that Sun has historically owned.
It doesn't have to be this way. If Sun were prepared to go all the way with open source it could seize back its position of industry leadership. Sun is one of a small handful of companies that would both have the smarts and the street cred to do even better than IBM has from a full-fledged alliance with the open-source community. Indeed, on historical grounds you might do better; many of the senior people in the movement are old-time Unix hackers who remember that Sun was founded by geeks like us at a time when IBM was the Great Satan.
But Sun has done other things that make us wonder if the vision and courage to choose the open-source path are really there. The suspicion persists that OpenOffice.org is just an expedient way to poke Microsoft in the eye, not the cutting edge of a open-source-friendly strategy that will position Sun for the future. Matters aren't helped by the fact that Sun appears, with Microsoft, to be one of the two companies doing most to stuff SCO's war chest for its attack on Linux.
In 1987, three years after the success of NFS, Sun lost the war to define the standard graphics interface for the next generation. The winner, the X Window System, was technically inferior to Sun's NeWS offering. But X had one critical advantage; it was open source. Ten years later in 1997, when Bill Joy came to a Linux conference to push Jini as a universal network-service protocol, we in the open-source community told him straight up "You can have ubiquity or you can have control. Pick one." He picked control, and Jini failed in its promise. The contrast with NFS could hardly be more stark.
Today, the big issue is Java. Sun's insistence on continuing tight control of the Java code has damaged Sun's long-term interests by throttling acceptance of the language in the open-source community, ceding the field (and probably the future) to scripting-language competitors like Python and Perl. Once again the choice is between control and ubiquity, and despite your claim that "open source is our friend" Sun appears to be choosing control. Sun's terms are so restrictive that Linux distributions cannot even include Java binaries for use as a browser plugin, let alone as a standalone development tool.
Mr. CEO, tear down that wall. You have millions of potential allies out here in the open-source community who would love to become Java developers and users if it didn't mean ceding control of their future to Sun. If you're serious about being a friend of open source, if you're serious about preparing Sun for the future we can all see coming in which code secrecy and proprietary lock-in will no longer be viable strategies, prove it. Let Java go.
Eric S, Raymond President, Open Source Initiative 12 Feb 2004
About Eric S. Raymond Eric Raymond, usually known in the Open Source community simply by his initials, ESR, is President, Open Source Initiative.
TriLetterized
SchmiLetterized wrote:
How can one *possibly*
take serious someone who
writes about himself, as
Eric Raymond does, on his
own website, as follows:
"I'm one of the
half-dozen or so most
influential people in
[the open source]
movement; in fact, a lot
of people would put me
among the top three, with
Linus Torvalds and
Richard M. Stallman.
The community has a
tradition of
tri-letterizing its
heroes - I suppose that
began with Stallman,
already a hero when I was
a fledgling programmer in
the early 1980s, who was
generally known as RMS
even then. Linus Torvalds
is just "Linus", perhaps
because (unlike "Richard"
or "Eric") one can refer
to him by simply first
name with very little
risk of aliasing
problems.
I think I started to be
routinely triletterized
into "ESR" around 1998."
Here's the link, so that
you ca...
Jared Davis wrote: I
think that you need to
take a look at what the
Java market share is
competing against. Java
does not, on the main,
compete with PERL or
Python. In fact, Java's
biggest competitor, and
threat, is Visual Basic.
Than's right, visual
basic. Right now, as you
read this you are
thinking "what a joke,
this guy doesn't know
what he is talking
about".
In fact, I do know whatI
am talking about. Out
here in corporate
america, where the IT
standards are truly
tested, paid for, and set
Java is The King, and not
in the prince charles
way, but in the Elvis
way. And VB is the second
in the succession.
That is right, everyone
is moving from C, not to
perl, python, or even
Visual Basic (VB seems to
be limited to new app
development, not
replacement). And they
are moving to Java. Not
for OS or compiler
programming. ...
Robert Morelli wrote:
This is a reformat of the
same comment above.
# Layton commented on 27
February 2004:
* *
>>As far as ESR's track
record on economic
predictions goes,
>>need I comment? I can
remember interviews he
gave 3 or 4
>>years ago in which he
predicted the imminent
collapse of
>>Microsoft's monopoly,
within 6 months or so. In
one
>>interview several
years ago he also
predicted that Linux
>>would become easy
enough for Aunt Tilly to
use within 6
>>months. Kind of makes
you wonder if maybe ESR's
judgement
>>is, just a
little tad, distorted."
ESR is part
schoolgirl-in-love and
part True Believer. In
love with the hacker
culture, he's mostly
blind to its
limitations and
dysfunctionality. Not
that he's
unintelligent. But ESR
chooses to use his
intelligence to
fantasize flowery camelot
idealizations of that
culture, an...
Robert Morelli wrote: #
Layton commented on 27
February 2004:
* *
"As far as ESR's
track record on economic
predictions goes,
need I comment? I
can remember interviews
he gave 3 or
4 years ago in
which he predicted the
imminent collapse
of Microsoft's
monopoly, within 6 months
or so. In one
interview several
years ago he also
predicted that Linux
would become easy
enough for Aunt Tilly to
use within 6
months. Kind of
makes you wonder if maybe
ESR's judgement
is, just a little
tad, distorted."
ESR is part
schoolgirl-in-love and
part True Believer. In
love with
the hacker culture, he's
mostly blind to its
limitations and
dysfunctionality.
Not
that he's unintelligent.
But ESR chooses to use
his intelligence to
fantasize flowery camelot
idealizations of that
culture, and concoc...
Open
sourcing Java would not
force Sun to accept
additions to the standard
codebase that would break
compatibility. They get
to choose what goes into
Java software that they
ship.
Open sourcing Java
would probably reduce the
tendency for incompatible
open-source
implementations. Since
open-source implementors
are not required to
reimplement as much,
there would be less
opportunity for mistakes.
Open sourcing Java
would encourage other
vendors to open source
their Java-based
products. This exposure
would in turn encourage
them to smarten up their
act. [Actually, Sun could
even some up with a model
that forced third-party
vendors to open source
any components that are
critical to. For example,
Sun could say that open
sourcing is a
prerequisite for a Sun
endorsement of
compatibility.]
Layton wrote: *
"As far as ESR's
track record on economic
predictions goes,
need I comment? I
can remember interviews
he gave 3 or
4 years ago in
which he predicted the
imminent collapse
of Microsoft's
monopoly, within 6 months
or so. In one
interview several
years ago he also
predicted that Linux
would become easy
enough for Aunt Tilly to
use within 6
months. Kind of
makes you wonder if maybe
ESR's judgement
is, just a little
tad, distorted."
Your take on this reminds
me of the take I used to
see in reference to linux
in the server room. Yes,
those time frames are
insane. Microsoft has a
war chest that would keep
them going for 2 or 3
years if they lost all
revenues. But why do you
thing they bought
controling interest in
the NBC television
network? Why do you think
they are tryi...
Robert Morelli wrote: The
question of whether Sun
should open source Java
comes
down to a question
of quality and viability.
Would
it really improve the
quality of Java? I doubt
it very
much.
I've been using Linux as
my primary OS for several
years.
I like open source
on a philosophical level,
and I like
some social aspects of
the distribution and
development
model. I've
heard all the arguments
about why OSS should
be economically viable
and technically superior,
etc.
However, my experience
is otherwise. On a
technical level,
Linux (and OSS in
general) is not
impressive. Linux is the
most problematic OS I've
ever used. I've had huge
problems
with performance,
reliability,
documentation, feature
impoverishment, etc.
I've also programmed in
both Java and with open
source
technologies like
gcc, Gtk, ... .
Tech...
Kapil Khanna wrote: The
Java language is just a
specification. The Java
virtual machine is a
commodity today. Anyone
can build one. We have
standardised on using
Java/J2EE in our
enterprise for
development. We are
running a non-sun JVM on
Linux. I do not see how
anyone is locked into Sun
with Java. I can decide
to use any J2EE complaint
App server or any Java
virtual. I have never
seen such freedom with
any other platform.
By letting Java go open
source, what are we
really talking about
here. The source for the
Sun - JDK? Who cares!
dhartford wrote:
Business:
Have a central
authority that has the
resources to test,
develop, defend, and
maintain consistency is a
big seller to the
enterprise. As an
example, Perl is a great
and very powerful
programming language, but
for an enterprise to
write and maintain
applications in a more
liberally licensed Perl?
Sorry, but having an
organization such as Sun
overseeing the enterprise
need helps keep Java in
the enterprise, even if
it means holding an
intellectual fist
(license) over the
programming language.
Licensing:
I have not looked into
the specifics, but if the
only concern is if Sun
will ''take away java'',
maybe the best solution
is to open up the
important piece - the
JVM. Blackdown is not
technically ''open
source'' because of the
ties to Sun''s JVM
licensing/core code. Fix
that once piece, and
...
Eli Yishai wrote:
Although not open source,
Java is openly specified
soliciting input from
individuals, commercial
interests and open source
organizations. However,
after having seen how
numerous corporations
have attempted to hijack
or co-opt it for the sake
of their own agendas -
and this extends beyond
Microsoft - it is in
Sun''s and Java''s
interest not to have a
repeat of the OMG specs
(which were delayed by
years because of
internecine strife), and
not to have Java
splintered in the way
Unix had been in the late
80''s/early 90''s.
Although I am a fan of
Linux, I am not so much a
fan of it''s
non-centralized
direction. This has led
in the past to what I
consider arbitrary
changes in the Linux
platform, which, for
example, has made it more
difficult to interoperate
with other Unix
platforms. I would prefer
for J...
Mr Evident wrote: Someday
everybody will wake up
and realize that the king
is parading without
clothes!
And that day the
big Java hoopla will
deflate and people
(otherwise smart and
talented) will say to
themselves: why did I
spend so much time in a
platform that the only
thing is has for it is
"being cool"?
Dennis wrote: Arguably,
it seems to be a problem
to choose between
ubiquity and control. On
the other hand, Sun has
continued to push the
language to a controlled
force that drives a lot
of businesses and is
regarded as a future
language. It is possible
to view all sources and
participate in even
hacking the JVM itself,
something I would not
even dare to think
about... Open Source is a
great way of
accomplishing work and
developing software, but
there is also a great
risk: unless a piece of
software is really a
nutcracker everyone
wishes to use and work
with, it moves into too
many different
directions, thus leading
to a disortion of the
original intention. I
like to think about it as
a larger oligopol many
can participate, but few
take control - basically
the same the apache
foundation is doing. In
keeping tight con...
mepp wrote: The otherwise
articulate and seemingly
knowledgeable Eric
Raymond says: "Open
source is hardly a
zero-revenue model; ask
Red Hat, which had a
share price over triple
Sun''s when I just
checked."
This is a gaffe of such
monumental distortion
that it makes me wonder
what other pretty simple
facts of life he chooses
to ignore.
Techies should refrain
from using information to
support their view from
areas they do not
understand. Share price
is irrelevant. Market
cap is a better measure.
Market Cap of Red Hat:
$3.26B
Market Cap of Sun
Microsystems: $18.9B
Better still measure of
the "size" or "worth" of
a company is revenue:
Sun: Ranging from $11
BILLION to $18B annually
over past 3 years.
Redhat: Ranging from $80
MILLION to $100M annually
over same period.
About 1% of Sun''s.
anonymous wrote: I wish
that ESR would shut up.
He uses his high concept,
impractical business
models to promote himself
and his own private
agenda, rather than
proving that they work by
putting his own money and
effort into companies
that implement them.
ESR reminds me of a union
leader that roams around
construction sites,
complaining and
protesting about
discrimination and union
rule non-compliance,
UNTIL the construction
manager hands over a
bribe to take his trouble
somewhere else.
I don''t think that ESR
is taking monetary bribes
but I do think that he
kicks up a stink to
promote himself and get
his name in the
magazines. Most of the
time, ESR can convince
himself that he is a
great prophet but,
occasionally and
privately, I think that
he has moments when he
realizes that he is just
a huckster and a shill.
His...
Juan wrote: I lead
projects for my company
and I push very hard on
Java even though we are
Microsoft slaves. One
of my arguments (among
others) to get Java (over
.net) projects approved
is "you have serious
companies like Sun and
IBM behind Java". That
helps a lot. I do agree
from the technology point
of view, that opening
Java would benefit Java
itself a lot, but if that
is going to happen, it
should be done in a way
for which the API,
additions and new
features are driven like
they are right now. One
thing that makes Java
very reliable is the
responsibility in which
the inclusion of new
APIs, features and
changes are done. Very
few languages (any
other?) have such stable,
logical, organized and
well-thought APIs. Once
you learn Java, you
don''t have to re-learn
it when a new release
comes out (as it happens ...
Chris Duesing wrote: I
would like to point out
that all of the serious
arguments for open
sourcing Java are along
the lines of philosophy
or "the hackers want to
fiddle with the bits".
That is fine, I do not
have any real problem
with either of those
things. However, Java
would not be relevant if
it lost its ubiquitous
nature. You may scoff at
the write once, run
anywhere slogan, but it
is a truly unique and
powerful position (for
the language, not SUN).
This is a direct result
of having one entity
retain control. Were it
open sourced there would
be MS Java , GNU Java ,
Mac Java etc etc. What
would the draw to use the
language be? Today Javas
position comes from its
singular nature. I do not
have to learn which parts
of the language work on
which platforms. This
would be especially
problematic for
corporations. At...
Andrew wrote: "Sun''s
insistence on continuing
tight control of the Java
code has damaged Sun''s
long-term interests by
throttling acceptance of
the language in the
open-source community,
ceding the field (and
probably the future) to
scripting-language
competitors like Python
and Perl"
The acceptance of java by
the open source community
has been
throttled? ESR needs to
take a look at all the
java projects on
sourceforge.
"if you''re serious about
preparing Sun for the
future we can all see
coming in which code
secrecy and proprietary
lock-in will no longer be
viable strategies"
Code secrecy???! I can
go download the code for
java right now. What
secrecy?
Java Programmer wrote:
There is no less
controled thing. There is
controlled and
uncontrolled. Sun is
equal to Microsoft but
they try to use their
marketing to look like
the good guys. They
should really Open Source
Java or close it. People
are already starting to
use GCJ with SWT for UI
programs. Even some
server-side applications
are being compiled
natively using GCJ. It´s
the way that the
open-source community is
trying to use Java
freely. So if a situation
like this keep evolving
many programmers are
simply going to stop
using Java Virtual
Machines and programming
natively like it has
always been done. The
thing that still remains
is the Java API. There is
already a lot of
redundant code being
developed. Compare many
Jakarta projects with the
Java API. For instance
the Java Log API and
Log4J. To end this post I
...
Jim Willeke wrote: At
issue is that much of the
work surrounding Java has
been done by others and
due credit is/has not
been provided.
Further, if you have not
looked at .NET and seen
the STEMA roller comming,
something must be done to
even keep Java alive and
it appears that SUN may
not be willing or able to
keep the enough momentum
to even slow the steam
roller.
BTW, you looked
at MONO latley ?
LET JAVA GO.
IBM, Novell, BEA and many
others whom already
provide a lot of input
and additions to Java
would I am sure be more
willing if SUN did not
get the credit.
Virtualization Journal
now reaches more than
60,000 online readers
with monthly digital
editions and weekly
newsletters. The premier
issue of the magazine's
print edition, which
debuts on May 6, 2008, at
JavaOne in San Francisco,
as a media sponsor of
this event, will be
availabl
Kaazing Corporation and
Sun Microsystems
announced an alliance to
deliver the scalable and
advanced real-time Web
2.0 platform. The
integration between
Kaazing's real-time Rich
Internet Application
(RIA) solution,
Enterprise Comet, and Sun
Microsystems' open source
Java EE applic
Sun's mule train has
finally pulled into
Indiana after three years
on the road. Indiana is
the Linux-friendly
Fedora-like OpenSolaris
project meant to move the
Solaris-shy Linux
community off Linux and
on to Solaris tempted by
Solaris widgetry like the
highly scalable,
rollback-e
At Java One this week Sun
has been selling its year
-old-but-still-upcoming -
and definitely
late-to-the-party - Adobe
AIR- and Microsoft
Silverlight-competitive
JavaFX Rich Client
environment as a
potential
revenue-generator capable
of putting ads on mobile
applications and JavaF
MySQL has backed off a
plan to charge for some
encryption and
compression backup
widgetry in the next
version of the database -
and, heavens, NOT OPEN
SOURCE THE STUFF, an idea
it trotted a few weeks
ago and predictably
caught hell for. Sun,
which bought MySQL for a
billion dolla
Conference in San
Francisco. Dvorak held
forth on a number of
topics, including the new
AMD/Intel lawsuit, the
viability of Java and
Sun, the value of (or
lack thereof) of
corporate PR, and whether
or not a new book about
Silicon Valley is really
worth reading.
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.gif)
Virtualization Journal
now reaches more than
60,000 online readers
with monthly digital
editions and weekly
newsletters. The premier
issue of the magazine's
print edition, which
debuts on May 6, 2008, at
JavaOne in San Francisco,
as a media sponsor of
this event, will be
availabl 
Kaazing Corporation and
Sun Microsystems
announced an alliance to
deliver the scalable and
advanced real-time Web
2.0 platform. The
integration between
Kaazing's real-time Rich
Internet Application
(RIA) solution,
Enterprise Comet, and Sun
Microsystems' open source
Java EE applic
Sun's mule train has
finally pulled into
Indiana after three years
on the road. Indiana is
the Linux-friendly
Fedora-like OpenSolaris
project meant to move the
Solaris-shy Linux
community off Linux and
on to Solaris tempted by
Solaris widgetry like the
highly scalable,
rollback-e 
At Java One this week Sun
has been selling its year
-old-but-still-upcoming -
and definitely
late-to-the-party - Adobe
AIR- and Microsoft
Silverlight-competitive
JavaFX Rich Client
environment as a
potential
revenue-generator capable
of putting ads on mobile
applications and JavaF
MySQL has backed off a
plan to charge for some
encryption and
compression backup
widgetry in the next
version of the database -
and, heavens, NOT OPEN
SOURCE THE STUFF, an idea
it trotted a few weeks
ago and predictably
caught hell for. Sun,
which bought MySQL for a
billion dolla
