Apache vs. Sun

Is Sun playing hardball with Apache, and intentionally impeding the Harmony project?

Geir Magnusson Jr, an officer for the Apache Software Foundation (ASF), has sent an open letter to Sun regarding their field-of-use restrictions on the Java SE Technology Compatibility Kit (Java TCK, sometimes called the JCK).

The JCK is an important component to ensure that an independent implementation of the Java SE specification is truly 100% Java compatible. This compatibility guarantee is important to Java developers because it assures them that their Java code will run on Apache’s JVM the same as it would on Sun’s, or any other VM that has passed the JCK.

However, Sun is imposing certain field-of-use restrictions on the JCK that, according to Geir, are unacceptable to ASF. In general, a field-of-use clause in a contract restricts the circumstances to which a technology can be applied. Exactly what the restrictions are in this case is unclear to me. What is clear is that Apache has been trying to work this out with Sun since August of 2006, with little or no success.

For more information, ASF has posted a FAQ on their site to help make the matter clear to readers.

On the surface, one might assume that Sun is intentionally impeding the progress of Apache’s Harmony project out of concern it might lose revenue. However, Apache has made it clear that for customers to use Harmony in a commercial product, there are still Java branding issues that remain that require the customer to license the technology from Sun, regardless of the VM implementation.

Sun has yet to comment on the open letter, either through a press release, a statement on their site, or an entry in a blog. I will be watching closely as this matter progresses, and report back here any new information.

-EJB

Posted by Eric Bruno at 10:49 AM  Permalink