In the official announcement published on the Aquarium blog today, Oracle revealed that it seriously considers moving Java EE to an open source foundation.
In the last couple of weeks, Oracle has made a very good progress with the Java EE 8 development. With its planned delivery approaching soon (JavaOne conference in October), Oracle says that they are now re-thinking how Java EE is developed to make it more agile and responsive to the fast-paced industry trends and demands.
In the official statement, David Delabassee - Java EE Evangelist - admits that the development process can be improved and that moving Java EE to an open source foundation can be the best option: 'although Java EE is developed in open source with the participation of the Java EE community, often the process is not seen as being agile, flexible or open enough, particularly when compared to other open source communities. We’d like to do better'.
The improvements, as stated by Oracle, would start after Java EE 8 is delivered. If the final decision would be to open up Java EE, the reference implementation and test compatibility kit would also be moved to open source. Oracle hopes that moving Java EE to an open source foundation (with Eclipse and Apache being the most likely candidates) will bring a lot of improvements in Java EE development, including more agile processes, more flexible licensing and change of the governance process . 'We believe a more open process, that is not dependent on a single vendor as platform lead, will encourage greater participation and innovation, and will be in best interests of the community' - said Delabassee.
Steve Millidge, Payara Services Founder and Director, feels positive about Oracle's announcement and says that 'Payara Services supports the move of Java EE to an open source model - as an open source company we stand ready to assist where we can.'
Oracle hopes that opening up Java EE will encourage greater community participation and innovation. Such improvements would be very beneficial for the Eclipse MicroProfile initiative (Payara Services being one of its founding members), which aims to optimise Enterprise Java for microservices architectures.
Before the final decision is made, Oracle promises to meet its ongoing commitments to all stakeholders and wants to discuss its plans and explore the options with the community, partners, licensees and potential candidate foundations. If you would like to share your opinion, provide feedback or comments, you can send them to Oracle directly to feedback@javaee.groups.io.
