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Sun Answers The World's Most Boring Question

Here's what we know so far: Java will, in the not-too-distant future, be available under an OSI-approved open-source license.

Here's what Sun knows about its plan, that it hasn't told us yet: nothing.

In fact, I'll bet that the entirety of Sun's open-source master plan for Java consisted of the following steps:

Step One: Wait for the ink to dry on Scott McNealy's resignation letter.

Step Two: Send an intern downstairs to make sure McNealy's parking spot is empty.

Step Three: Jonathan Schwartz and Rich Green flip a coin to see who gets to make the announcement.

Taking care of the details on this improv act won't be a problem, mostly because Sun has more experience organizing, launching, and managing open-source projects than almost any other for-profit organization on the planet. Even if Sun's lack of planning was a problem, the alternative -- another JavaOne event filled with day after day of inane, pointless yapping over the open-source Java "debate" -- was probably too hellish to contemplate.

As one analyst, Red Monk's James Governor, said yesterday, "I hope Sun moves onward with it quickly, because I'm really bored with the question." Amen, brother.

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