Sun Microsystems Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., has released the source code to its widely used Java programming language. Analysts see the move as one that should widen the reach of the already-prevalent language.
The announcement also comes after years of Sun declining to open Java, even as Sun released many of its other technologies, including the Solaris operating system, as open source.
The company will post the source code to various pieces of Java over the next few months, according to Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz, who announced the release today. Available immediately, on the Java.net site, is the code for the Java Platform Standard Edition—which has over 6 million lines of code—and the Java Platform Micro Edition for embedded systems.
The company estimates that there are five million Java developers worldwide and more than 3.8 billion machines running Java in some form. The company hopes to extend the reach of Java by allowing outside developers to contribute to its advancement.
"This creates a fully permeable membrane between members within the Sun internal community and the world at large," said Rich Green, Sun"s executive vice president of software.