Sun Presents Open-Source Enterprise Java

The company's Java enterprise application server is now open to community development, while Sun execs tout the global reach of Java via mobile phones and the Blu-Ray disc standard.

SAN FRANCISCO—Sun Microsystems had plenty of gifts for its faithful partners and software development community, as the company celebrated the tenth anniversary of Java. And there was more being offered than t-shirts and a fake birthday cake for Duke, the Java mascot.

Sun Microsystems Inc.s Chief Operating Officer and President Jonathan Schwartz announced at Suns JavaOne conference here today that the company was releasing the next generation of its Java enterprise application server as open source.

"Today, we are open-sourcing Suns server side implementation of Java," Schwartz told an audience of about 10,000 software developers and Sun partners. "This is the first step in open-sourcing all of Suns Java software assets."

Effective immediately, Suns Java System Application Server Platform Edition, code-named Glass Fish—the companys implementation of the upcoming Java EE 5 (Java Platform Enterprise Edition 5) standard—has been opened up to community development under Suns CDDL open-source license.

Click here to read more about J2EE technology being open-sourced by Sun Microsystems.

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Sun is releasing the source code to its application server in advance of the finalization of the Java EE 5 specification by the JCP (Java Community Process), according to Sun executives, to further open up the evolution of the platform. "This is about creating a community that shapes what the next generation of Java technology will look like," said Sun Executive Vice President John Loiacono.

Additionally, Loiacono announced that the company was releasing an open-source implementation of the new JBI 1.0 (Java Business Integration 1.0) specification, called Java System ESB, under the same CDDL licensing scheme.

In a press conference following the keynote, Schwartz defended the CDDL license, which (despite being approved by the Open Source Initiative) has been called a "vanity license" by some open-source advocates. "We believe indemnity and patent protection are essential," Schwartz said. "And to date, CDDL is the only license to provide those."

Schwartz also announced during his keynote that Sun and IBM had reached an agreement to extend IBMs Java license another 11 years. IBM additionally has agreed to deliver versions of all of its middleware products for the Solaris 10 operating system on SPARC and Advanced Micro Devices Inc.s x86 and x64 processors.

To read Peter Coffees positive reaction to offerings at the JavaOne conference, click here.

Javas reach beyond the enterprise was also featured in Sun executives presentations. Loiacono claimed that there are now more Java-enabled mobile phones deployed worldwide—over 708 million handsets—than personal computers.

And Schwartz presentation included a video message from NTT DoCoMos Takeshi Natsuno, managing director of iMode planning development, who credited 60 percent of the companys $10 billion in revenue from DoCoMos iMode service to Java-based services.

Schwartzs keynote also featured a demonstration by Yasushi Nishimura, director of research and development at Panasonic Corp. of North America. Nishimura demonstrated Java technology integrated into Blu-Ray Disc, the high-definition digital-video disc standard. "Java will be the standard for interactivity on Blu-Ray," Nishimura said.

Blu-Rays technology platform, called BDJ, is based on J2ME (Java 2 Mobile Edition) and the Java-based MHP/GEM (Multimedia Home Platform/Globally Executable Multimedia) platform. All Blu-Ray devices will ship with Java, and will potentially be able to use network connectivity for interactive features, including downloading games.

"This Blu-Ray thing is staggering," said Sun CEO Scott McNealy after the keynote. "If you think about how every next-generation DVD player will have a full JVM in there connected to a network … we underhyped Java big-time 10 years ago. We didnt think every DVD player would become a Java PC."

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