The latest Apache Foundation project to create an open source implementation of the Java 2 Standard Edition has not exactly received blessing from Sun Microsystems. They are expressing "serious doubts" about the usefulness of the project, and have said that they do not understand why the open source consortium was undertaking the project.
"[Apache] says a lot of words about why they want to do it. Exactly why is it critical to have a delta between our source licence and the source licence that they think is appropriate?" said James Gosling, Java creator and Sun vice president.
"I understand why they would like it to be different. From our point of view that would actually be more destructive than helpful. It boils down to forking: they believe that the ability to fork is an absolutely critical right."
Apache have replied that they do not aim to fork Java, and that the open source J2SE implementation can be taken and ported and used in a diverse number of applications and situations.