Sun's bid to standardize Java, take two:
After receiving comments on its initial proposal to the International Standards Organization's Joint Technical Committee, Sun Microsystems' JavaSoft division has revised its submission to address comments supplied by the ISO member countries. The changes were expected to be posted on its Web site today.
After Sun's first proposal, only three countries approved, while 20 others wanted revisions made before it proceeded any further into the review stage. Most of the comments concerned Sun's stewardship - is it ownership? - of the Java technology, and the rights other companies would have to use the Java name in their products.
"There were two main points that we wanted changed," said Stan Statt, head of the UK delegation on the JTC committee. "One was that for any enhancements or maintenance, the forum must be open, and not simply controlled by Sun. The other is that everyone should be able to bring the word Java into the picture."
If Sun succeeds in becoming a publicly available specification, or PAS, submitter - as it has proposed - the company would maintain control over the evolution of the technology, making changes as it sees fit. Normally, the ISO will not grant this authority to a company, but Sun argues that it is in the best position to make necessary changes and is in constant contact with the relevant developer community. Jim Mitchell, JavaSoft's vice president of technology, said today that "Sun will carry out maintenance of the international standard on behalf of the Java community using our established open process, and we will also participate in JTC-1 internal maintenance processes."
Regarding the other crucial comment, the use of the Java name, Sun appears to be holding firm to its original stance: "Sun cannot and will not surrender its trademarks for the Java platform to ISO or anyone else," said Mitchell. He likened Java to Windows, and said "we'll consider putting the Java trademarks in the public domain when Microsoft relinquishes control over the Windows specification name and trademark."
Whether these revisions meet the demands of the delegation will be determined over the course of the next several weeks as the members review the new proposal.
At the beginning of a teleconference today, Alan Baratz, president of JavaSoft, offered his "candid" view of Java and what it represents to the industry: "Java has become the software industry's genetic code because the technology delivers value that no other technology can...."
After that, the rest of Baratz's time was spent on a diatribe against Microsoft and the evils of proprietary technologies and how Microsoft is "panicking and in denial" over Java. He charged, among other things, that Microsoft is doing everything it can to undermine Java by fragmenting it and encouraging developers not to use it. With support from Netscape, IBM, Novell, Oracle, and other industry heavyweights, he argued, Microsoft will not be able to hold back the rising tide of support for Java.
"[Java] provides a very unique threat to Microsoft. Let's just call it the way it is. Every single thing that Microsoft says and does is designed to preserve their monopoly. They have no other motivation. And they're a monopoly that's under siege," he argued.
