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When you think programming languages and Linux, the languages that tend to come to mind are C, C++, Perl, PHP, Python and, lately, Ruby. But, Java probably doesnt enter your mind at all—thats because until recently Java was a proprietary language.
Sun, however has now liberated Java under the GPLv2 open-source license. I think that will help, but I think the fact that the Eclipse Foundation, with its Eclipse IDE (integrated development environment), and the JCP (Java Community Process), with its NetBeans IDE, are making nice will help a lot, too.
Developers didnt need yet another standards battle, but thats what they got. Both groups have long lists of companies supporting them, but what it really came down to was IBM (Eclipse) versus Sun (NetBeans): winner takes first the Java IDE kingdom, and then the Java application world.