Apache Leaves the Java Board - The UpStream

Apache Leaves the Java Board

posted Sunday Dec 12, 2010 by Scott Ertz

Apache Leaves the Java Board

While the Apache Foundation may be taking over responsibility of Google Wave, they will be resigning their responsibilities on the Java SE/EE Executive Committee. They do so after 10 years on the board responsible for maintaining standards for Java across the software industry.

Before we get into the reasons they left, let's talk about their tenure. In the 10 years with the organization, Apache has been "Member of the Year" 4 times. They also were voted for another term by 95%, far more than needed. Obviously everyone liked them.

So, why are they leaving? Hit the break to find out.

The Apache Foundation's announcement states,

The recent Java SE 7 vote was the last chance for the JCP EC to demonstrate that the EC has

any intent to defend the JCP as an open specification process, and demonstrate that the letter

and spirit of the law matter.

What does this mean to normal people? Apache is all about open source software, and whether or not you agree with it, they are unhappy that Java has gotten farther and farther away from being an open environment. In fact, they are mostly afraid that Oracle's acquisition of Sun Systems, who runs the Java project, has little to no interest in maintaining an open community.

Oracle has never really been interested in open source. It has paid off for them well so far, especially considering they purchased Sun Systems who was all about open. In evidence of this, one of Oracle's first moves upon taking over Sun was to spin Open Office off to its own organization.

Now, this does mean that Oracle has more control over their end product and will probably close it up entirely within a year or so. This is not really a problem, as Java is one of the most used and worst maintained standards in the entire software industry. It would be nice to see Java and Javascript not being released with differing builds from different people allowing for code to work the same way on every system.

We can only follow this story over the next year or so and see how it plays out. What do you guys think about the closing up of Java? Tell us in the comments.

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