Still recovering from FOO. It was better for me this year than last, as last year I had to medical procedures that prevented me from sleeping on-site. This year, I did. Werewolf is my new addiction. (I keep trying to come up with some riff on "Jane's Addiction" since Jane taught us newbies... and she was a stern taskmaster...). Anyway, interesting things came out of it, including a Chumby.

This article I found on Slashdot was pretty good, but I do want to take issue with one important thing. The GPL is viral for every conventional sense of the world. Period.

So how did they claim the GPL wasn't viral? They just simply ignored the conventional worry about the GPL - that when you link non-GPL-ed code with GPL-ed code, the whole work falls under the terms of the GPL, and went for the corner case - if you have a GPL-ed program on your disk drive, it has no effect on other programs on your disk drive.

Ironically, they note in section 6 of the article that the GPL also requires distribution of anything and everything short of OS and complier needed to get the program going, including build and installation scripts. So not only is it viral to your source code, but also to that source's build environment. C'mon, Dave...

When I did my switch to WinXP last december, Cedric blogged about TaskSwitchXP, a task switcher for Windows that is really wonderful.

I found something similar for OS X - Witch. By default it uses option-tab, which may not be so bad as it keeps the regular task switcher in place.

Yes, lets share. In fact, given that we have a solid Open Source Java SE project in Apache Harmony, why doesn't Sun just bring what they have there? ;) We've got the license, the governance model, and know how to accept large donations from corporations. Seriously...

Seems like we're back in the late 90's, running on "internet time". Today, the new Java SE 7 site was revealed, much to the surprise of everyone. Note that Java SE 6 isn't shipping yet.

And I'm honestly surprised to note that it's not under an open source license.

Seriously - why not do Java SE 7 as open source? I know you couldn't start with the Codebase Formerly Known As Mustang* (CFKAM), but are we in that much of a hurry for Java 7? Start with a blank slate, and let the community watch the governance and code appear. Do the Java 7 EG like an open source project. That will take some time to get going, and by that time - according to Sun - the CFKAM will be available under an open source license. Make Java 7 open from the get-go!

* It appears the Mustang and the Dolphin were let go during Sun's last RIF

So the birds tell me that cool things are going to be open sourced by Sun this year (like javac), and then a big pile next year. And ME too!

It will be interesting to consider their javac in Harmony, compared to the Eclipse one. Sun has a chance to one-up Eclipse by using a license with less restrictions, like a BSD license.

Update (2006-08-15) : http://news.com.com/2100-7252_3-6105601.html?part=rss&tag=6105601&subj=news

I've had a lot to say about Sun open-sourcing Java, and I never managed to get it posted given the crash Codehaus had. I knew that Sun was going to announce something at JavaOne, but had no idea what it was. I had a lot of thoughts about it, and I'll be perfectly frank - I was wrong. I thought Sun was going to actually do something specific. I'm not dissatisfied - I think that the significance was that Jonathan Schwartz committed Sun to releasing Java SE under an Open Source license, and that was a big thing. So, now might be a good time to start musing about this...

Like Glassfish and OpenSolaris, Sun won't do it at once. Some Sun people think they can, but they can't. There has been 10 years of very fast, very competitive growth in that codebase, and I'm betting that Sun doesn't have a real clue what's in there. The code will have to be sorted through and examined. I know from my experience at both IBM and Intel in OSS code contributions, it's prudent to go over the code with a fine-toothed lawyer, even when the code was specifically written to be clean-room and clear of external IP issues. In this case, there's going to be lots of encumbrances, and I'm really hoping that those with the encumbering IP help out and make this easy for Sun. This is a big and important step for the entire Java ecosystem.

What license will Sun use? This has been and will be a source of rampant speculation. Sun needs to balance two things - dealing with their darkest fears around compatibility with the need for a licensing regime in which all players can innovate and control their own IP. Clearly the GPL won't do. While I am a big fan of the Apache License and the full freedom it offers, I can live with the CDDL and other soft-copyleft licenses. At least then, people could invest in innovation, and choose how they wished to license the IP for the things they created that were truly new.

I've suggested to anyone who listens that if Sun does have to do the GPL, they at least dual license under something free-as-in-freedom like the Apache License, with a non-free/non-open-source addendum that licenses the code under the Apache License if and only if any derivative work passes the TCK - IOW, is compatible Java. While we couldn't use that code at the ASF, as it's not open source, they would at least make it easy for people to do innovative things with Java (port to new platforms, better performance, embed in new applications...) and retain the freedom over their own code.

Maybe the best solution is the CDDL for core stuff, and BSD-like license for the not-critical-to-compatibility parts. Maybe do all the tools and plugins under BSD (so we can use them in Harmony), and the rest under CDDL? (Except for the bytecode verifier that we also need in Harmony...)

The community that Sun creates around their open source implementation of Java will be the most important aspect - more important than the license. People tend to forget that 'open source' is really a combination of a license for code and a governance model for the community. Simply put, people want to participate on a level playing field where all activity is transparent, where everyone is a peer, and everyone shares in the same benefits of the collaboration. To that end I hope that Sun creates a community that allows anyone to be a committer after some amount of demonstrated competence, that the copyright model is symmetric (IOW, it's not like Glassfish where Sun's copyright contributions belong to Sun, and your copyright contribution belong to Sun...), and that the governance model is clearly defined, and open in it's execution.

Again, this project will only reap the collaborative benefits of open source if every possible participant - be it individual, academic or commercial - has the same chance to contribute and the same opportunity to benefit as every other participant.

This is the "Participation Age" after all, isn't it....

While it does seem like I'm shooting myself in the foot as I'm one of the founders of and a big proponent of Apache Harmony, I'm actually willing to help with this one. I just don't know who to ask....

So here's where the crazy talk comes... I'll bet, and it's only based on sheer optimism and that things happen for good in the universe, that the people from Sun listening to Jonathan at JavaOne got it wrong, and aren't going to just open source Java SE, but rather open source the whole kit and kaboodle. Java EE is almost done with Glassfish, so it's only Java SE and Java ME, and the JCP.

Now, that's just crazy talk, of course. But Sun has done some odd things, and if you understand Sun's business model, it actually makes sense. "Lift heavy or go home" as a good friend used to tell me. (I work at home now...)

Were they to do that, I have some thoughts here too :

1. First, do it in steps. You didn't get Glassfish (Java EE) right, so I don't believe you'll get Java SE right either. But it will be better, and the learning you do in Java SE can be both plowed backwards into Glassfish as well as forward into Java ME.

2. Second, engage the community on what to do with the JCP. A lot of us (speaking as the Apache EC rep) have poured a lot of love and energy into the JCP, and given the promise that it will become a truly open and neutral ground for governing the ecosystem, I think you'll get a lot of positive engagement on how to make it better.

3. Finally, be careful with the name "Java". Don't abuse and dilute it by branding this new endeavour as "Java" or "Something Java". Just as we at Apache Harmony are "Apache Harmony, an implementation of Java SE", so should you be "Sun 'Jonathan', an implementation of Java SE".

   You've done it in the past with "Java Enterprise System" and "Java Desktop System", and most recently with that awful idea, "Java DB". Yes, you own the trademark, but "Java" is bigger than a mere trademark now, and in a community sense, we each own a little piece of it. People are pouring in creativity and innovation, planning for the future on it, building their businesses, their educations. It's a part of their social fabric. It's a promise of things interconnecting, it's a way of thinking, of working, it's an important facet of our technologically-oriented lives. Let it continue to be the thing around which we all share, all collaborate. You've created a wonderful thing - let us all continue to build on it, rally around it and yes, as owners, help protect it.

Thanks for reading this far :)

Note : the above is my personal opinion, and doesn't reflect the view or policy of my current or past employers.

So I was away last week in Crested Butte for my favorite un-conference, and as I mentioned, I had to fly United. I have to report that it was pretty good. They upgraded me to 'first class'* on both legs between here and Denver, let me roam about in the Red Carpet club for a day, and generally were very nice at all times. Now, the 757 to Denver and the A319 coming back DIDN'T have power for my laptop which was annoying, especially since it was first class, but it's only 2100 miles so I survived (barely... near-dead battery walking off the plane...). I think American does have them beat on this, as they do power in first, business and a good part of economy on every real plane, and one my Laws of the Road is "Keep your Powder Dry (and Batteries Charged)".

* Means that the seats slightly recline :)

I'm a dedicated American Airlines customer. For a few years running, I've reached the dreaded-yet-desired Executive Platinum status in their frequent flyer program. (Dreaded because of the time spent in their aluminum tubes shrieking across the sky sharing breath with 250 strangers to get to that level, desired because they really treat you well...). This week, I need to fly to a small conference in Denver, and then straight back friday night for a wedding on Saturday, and there was no reasonable way to do it on American. So I'm flying United. The problem is that I ignored excellent advice from my ex-boss Chet from Gluecode/IBM - "Don't get used to it" - and I got used to the quick check-in, the upgrades, etc.

It turns out that United had a nice "status match" program - prove to them that you have some status level in another frequent flyer program, and they'll give you the next-to-equivalent level in their program. After asking for expedited handling, they've managed to get it done before my trip, and I'm now "Premier Exec". (Kinda like AA's Platinum, I suppose). It hasn't solved my seat problem yet - I'm still in the back in row 723, in the middle, near the head... - but maybe they can fix that near their airport. Maybe flying on United won't be so bad now.

I once asked Delta about this - they hadn't even heard of the idea, so it seems. That fits with their "we resent you being here" approach to customer service..

I've been using Ubuntu as my main linux distro for a while now (not too long, I guess - since 5.0), and I really like it. I have always been worried by the auto update feature, not really having a good understanding of the testing process behind what was getting sent to me, or the security - seems like a great vector to infect quite a large number of linux machines...

Anyway, on an Ubuntu 6 box I had an autoupdate that killed Firefox. It was an odd bug - you could show a page, but clicking on any link would crash Firefox. Today, the little 'update light' was lit, more code came, and it was fixed!

I'm not terribly comfortable with this (reminds me of Windows), but at least it works...

I posted a new set of snapshots last night. Lots and lots of little and big fixes, much in the VM. Also fixed a problem where the VM wouldn't run on stock Win2k because of a lack of dbghelp.dll. Ug... Hints of things to come.

Please, try your favorite apps with it and let us know what's needed... We're now at the stage where user feedback is possible and very, very welcome. We have about 80% of the class library implemented, and the VM is reasonably useful. Has JIT and is not slow.

There have been lots of interesting things to talk about over the last 6 months....

One recent development is that we are now producing JRE snapshots for Apache Harmony. While the stuff isn't ready for prime time, it is the core of a JRE - the VM and the classlibrary. All open source. All under the Apache License.

You can do a few things with it, like run Tomcat and Eclipse. But it's still early, so I don't want to hype it. ßWhat we want to see is users being able to take our snapshot JRE and test their apps, and tell us what's wrong, so we can fix it, and let this virtuous cycle continue.

So please try it. You can get it here.