Motorola wants to take mobile Java to “the next level” by making it open source, a move which it hopes will “reduce fragmentation in the market”.
As part of its efforts, Motorola has launched opensource.motorola.com — a new resource aimed at sharing source code and original open source projects, as well as ideas and information with open source developers globally. The site features source code, including kernel and drivers, for Motorola’s Linux-based devices. Java test frameworks and sample test cases also are featured on the site. Motorola plans to add code, documents and specifications for Motorola-led Java Specification Requests (JSRs), such as MIDP 3.0 (Mobile Information Device Profile).
This is all very fine and well, but I was under the impression that Sun Microsystems was the developer of Java and should be making those kind of decisions. Is there something I’ve missed?
Bit of an update, the NYT has an article about Sun’s plans to make Java open source. “By making more and more of its Java technology open source, Sun hopes to increase the number of Java developers and programs and raise Java’s profile in the technology industry. The more prevalent Java becomes, the more customers there will be for Sun’s support services as well as its hardware, which runs Java programs, Mr. Schwartz said…”The question is not whether we will open-source Java; the question is how.”
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