Sun “Open” to Letting Java Go, with Strings

Sun Microsystems Inc is open to relinquishing stewardship of Java to a neutral third party, but is apparently against releasing the language to open
source under GPL.

The company’s software chief said an organization such as certification and program management specialist KeyLabs could be suited to managing Java.
However, Sun is anxious to prevent forking, with different versions of Java and therefore a KeyLabs-type guardian would have to continue compatibility
testing.

By the same token, Sun seems to be against releasing Java under the GNU Public License (GPL) following recent calls by IBM and other proponents to
open source Java.

Software group executive vice president Jonathan Schwartz told press this week: “Linux GPL allows for people to fork. There’s no forking in the
kernel, because the kernel is supplied by one guy.”