Cautious thumbs up to Sun initiative

Industry observers have given a guarded welcome to Sun Microsystem's announcement of its Community Source Licensing initiative for Java, saying the move is a good first step but does not go far enough.

As revealed in PC Dealer (16 December), Oracle and Sun unveiled an alliance to develop software that will compete head-to-head with Microsoft's Windows.

Customers can download Java source code from version 1.2 of its Java Developers' Kit (JDK) from its Website without paying an upfront licensing fee. Other Sun products will also be made available under the scheme.

Licensees will be required to pay single digit royalties to Sun as soon as they either run binary, packaged versions of Java they have developed, or sell it on to customers.

But they can also modify the source code without needing to pass any changes back to the supplier and can sub-license modified and compatible source to other Java licensees only, without needing to pay Sun or have the transaction overseen by it. This means developers will now be able to write Java clones or clean room versions, enabling them to embed the technology and still make money on it - a move designed to try to soothe Hewlett Packard to prevent it from going alone in this space.

The vendor also said non-Java licensees could participate in developing Java specifications for the first time by becoming members of expert groups and licensee review procedures.

Third parties will be given the right to lead the development of Java application programming interface (API) extensions for niche industries.

All API specification initiatives will be formally audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

But observers said Sun had been pressurised into its Community Source Licensing scheme by increasing dissatisfaction among its partners about the amount of control it has over the Java platform and specification.

One Sun partner said: 'Community licensing doesn't go far enough and we're not happy with the way Sun is doing things. We're a competitor with it now, not a partner, and we're still concerned about Sun being behind Java.'

He continued: 'It wasn't such a big issue when Sun was just a Java evangelist, but when it becomes a software company that doesn't follow its own rules, we may not see Java progressing as quickly as it could if Sun can't keep up.

'Although the various Java committees have been quite strong to date, Sun's recent actions have been causing alarm. The company is setting itself up as a software company to beat the hell out of Microsoft and while there's not a need for mutiny at the moment, people are starting to raise the red flags.'

One corporate added: 'Factionalisation is the main concern, which is why we need a consortium to handle standards.' Another added: 'We still need an independent standards body to provide international standards which are not in place today.'

But Alan Baratz, president of Java software at Sun, said: 'We've put enormous thought into this licensing model. We wanted it to be more open, but to maintain compatibility. Going any further would undermine compatibility and this model makes sense for the next decade or few years. It allows for rapid evolution, but not fragmentation.'

Ed Zander, chief operating officer at Sun, explained: 'Standards bodies have problems with speed, which is why consortia spring up. Our aim is to spread compatibility and our control is around compatibility. We've listened and we've tried to see how we should move forward, but there may be other refinements over the course of the year.'