By William Fellows
The industry today finds out whether Sun Microsystems Inc is ready to acknowledge that Java is bigger than itself when the company reveals the terms and conditions under which third parties will be able to participate in a so-called ‘open process’ to develop and enhance of the basic functionality of the Java API set. Whether this is any more than a passing acknowledgement remains to be seen as Sun, IBM told us, had not signed off on terms and conditions for participation in this so-called ‘open process’ for Java, by late Monday Eastern time. Sun will at the same time reveal how it will accommodate Java clonemakers within the Java-branded world. IBM Corp, by far Sun’s biggest Java ally, appears to have come down firmly on the side of the industry in the debate by – it claims – pushing Sun to making the process as open as possible, and lobbying for companies without Java licenses to be allowed to participate in the ‘open process.’
Inevitable confrontation
Moreover, IBM says that if Sun does not, as seemed likely at press time, allow this kind of participation or resolve the clone issue adequately, it will become the advocate for the non-Java licensees, setting up what would appear to be an inevitable confrontation between Big Blue and Sun. And in a further indication of the strength of IBM’s belief that development of Java APIs should be an open process, Big Blue has made it clear that it would like the International Standards Organization to amend its PAS standardization process – to which Sun will submit the JDK 1.2 next quarter – so that organizations and processes other than the PAS submitter itself, i.e. Sun, control the development and extension of the specification. Already hotly debated at a recent ISO meeting in Munich, the proposal to amend the PAS process is expected to get a more decisive airing at ISO’s January 26-29 meet in Rio de Janeiro. Brackenbury says IBM wants to ensure that Sun’s process is open to all parties for technical input. IBM essentially wants stewardship of the Java spec once it becomes a PAS process to have input from the ‘open process’ Sun will reveal tomorrow, so long as the terms and conditions of this process are acceptable to it. IBM maintains it has no problem with individual, commercial companies taking advantage of the PAS process to standardize IP. IBM, which handed its final pass of the process’s proposed T’s and C’s off to Sun over the weekend, said the discussions with Sun about the process started long ago and started badly, but that Sun has shifted a lot of ground in the course. IBM, which earlier this year at JavaOne declared that it wanted to see some of the Sun taken out of Java, says it’s clear that Java is now too big and too important to be controlled by a single company. Indeed it would like the industry to recognize that IBM too is Java. IBM Java luminary Ian Brackenbury, who has been instrumental in guiding IBM’s involvement in the ‘open process,’ says the industry needs a flow of standard Java APIs. They need to be flowed into IS and we’d like that to begin with PAS. Sun, it admits has been slow to push Java forward in many areas and promises to be a big pain in the ass to get Sun moving and incorporating all good ideas into it. Sun has another year left of its commitment to deliver a final specification for Java to ISO. An initial JDK 1.2 submission next quarter will be reviewed by ISO’s country organizations.
Clean room branding
In the meantime, insiders we spoke to said they do not expect the Java ‘clean room’ or clone industry to be happy with the Java branding deal Sun offers them today as part of the ‘open process.’ At best they expect the process will result in the development of new Java specifications Sun will make available to companies without a core Java license, but only under specific terms and conditions bound by what amounts to a non-Java Java license. The terms and conditions of that license, to the best of their knowledge, will require clonemakers to agree not change or break these specifications in their extended or enhanced Java ‘clean room’ products which use no Sun intellectual property, if they want to be awarded the right to display a Java brand. Moreover – and what’s more abhorrent to these folk – is Sun’s expected insistence that clonemakers which agree to these terms should re-license their extended products only to bona fide Java licensees.
